Australia’s Inflation Bombshell: RBA Cuts Wiped Off Table as Markets Recoil
Shock CPI Report Upends Rate-Cut Hopes On Oct. 29, official data showed Australia’s consumer price index (CPI) surged unexpectedly in Q3 2025. Headline CPI rose 1.3% from the previous quarter – the largest jump in 2½ years – pushing the annual rate to 3.2% (vs. 2.1% in Q2) reuters.com. Underlying inflation was even more worrying: the RBA’s preferred “trimmed mean” measure jumped 1.0% in Q3 (annual 3.0%), well above the 0.8% gain analysts predicted reuters.com bloomberg.co.jp. (By contrast, trimmed mean inflation had been easing – from 6.8% in late 2022 down to 2.7% – until this quarter.) Nearly every category