Australia’s Cooler Core Inflation Opens Door to Rate Cut

Australia’s core inflation unexpectedly decelerated last quarter, supporting the Reserve Bank’s view that prices will gradually ease and prompting money markets to boost bets on an interest-rate cut. The currency and bond yields dropped.

Traders abandoned wagers on policy tightening at the RBA’s meeting next week after the closely-watched trimmed mean inflation gauge, which smooths out volatile items, advanced 3.9% in the second quarter from 4% in the prior period, government data showed Wednesday. The consumer price index rose 3.8% in the three months through June from a year earlier, matching estimates.
$S&P/ASX 200 OPIC (OXJO.AU)$