Australia: Inflation accelerates in Q4
In the fourth quarter of 2021, consumer prices rose 1.3% over the previous quarter, following Q3’s 0.8% increase. Q4’s increase was mainly the result of higher prices for transportation, clothing and footwear and recreation and culture.
Annual inflation came in at 3.5% in Q4, up from Q3’s 3.0%. Therefore, inflation moved above the Reserve Bank’s 2.0%–3.0% target band.
Commenting on the release, Robert Carnell, economist at ING, stated:
“Factors such as energy price spikes still seem to be doing quite a lot of the heavy-lifting for inflation right now, with the transport component topping the list of contributions to the QoQ increase. The increase in contribution to quarterly inflation from service components such as recreation needs to be watched, however.”