High-than-expected inflation raises risk of another interest rate hike

The Reserve Bank wants to get inflation down, and it's been using the hammer. Monetary policy is a very blunt tool. But after new data this week showed inflation heading back up despite 13 interest rate rises, concerns grew for people with mortgages that rates will lift again. The central bank wants the growth in prices to stabilize between 2 and 3% a year, but the consumer price index and the Rbas preferred measure of trimmed mean inflation. Are still far above that and trending up. Enter a deputy governor newly arrived from the Bank of England, telling Australians to keep calm and carry on. It would be a bad mistake to set policy on the basis of one number and we don't intend to do that. The deputy governor says the RBA understands the impact on household budgets. We have a wide variety of ways of getting in a non-technical spreadsheet EDSG model kind of information in to complement the the pointy headed stuff. Tax cuts from July 1st will put more money in people's pockets, but the Treasurer isn't worried when it comes to energy bill relief and cheaper medicines and Commonwealth rent assistance. These are designed to put downward pressure, not upward pressure on prices. The Treasurer also sure his scrutiny of the banks won't lessen competition. ANZ winning a long battle to buy QLD Suncor, our competition watchdog, opposed the $5 billion deal but lost in court. We're always. Against the amalgamation, especially making the Big Four even bigger, there can't be any job losses or branch closures for three years. As the cost of living crisis continues, most economists are tipping a dip in rates until well into next year.