Australia: A genuine CPI “miss” in 3Q17 – ING

Taken together with awful retail spending figures of Australia recently, any prospect of an earlier RBA hike seem far-fetched right now, according to Rob Carnell, Chief Economist at ING.

Key Quotes

“Australian CPI failed to push higher in 3Q17. The consensus had expected it to ease gently higher to 2.0%YoY (up from 1.9%), but even the direction was wrong, with a 0.6%QoQ rise leading to inflation slipping back to only 1.8%YoY. This release seems like a genuine “miss”, with trimmed mean and weighted median CPI figures also all undershooting expectations. Taken together with awful retail spending figures recently, any prospect of an earlier RBA hike seem far-fetched right now. It’s no surprise to see the AUD softening on this data.”