Inflation data awaited as RBA governor delivers final pre-rate speech
Michele Bullock is back on stage this week, just a day after the latest monthly inflation figures are released.
With weeks to go until the Reserve Bank of Australia monetary policy board meets for the last time in 2024 and economists rapidly pushing back their predictions for a cut next year, the central bank is back in focus.
Here’s what you need to know about the key economic data releases this week.
New numbers
The data: Monthly Consumer Price Index indicator, October, Australian Bureau of Statistics
When: Wednesday 27 November 2024
What to expect: Commonwealth Bank economists are tipping a 0.4% decline in monthly CPI but flat over the year at 2.1% in headlining terms. Electricity price declines bolstered by energy subsidies are the main reason, alongside higher Commonwealth Rent Assistance which helps lower the rent category. They expect the critical annual trimmed mean CPI to have increased to 3.4%, from 3.2%.
But they said the uptick in underlying inflation “is largely owing to annual base effects becoming less favourable … it does not reflect a re-acceleration of inflationary pressures in the economy”.
