That sound you heard was a massive sigh of relief from mortgage holders across the country as the latest inflation figures pretty much put an end to interest rate rises. The latest quarterly CPI figures released by the Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday showed annual inflation has fallen from 5.4% in the September quarter to just 4.1% in the December quarter of 2023:

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That fall is the biggest drop – outside the 2020 lockdowns – for more than a decade. It means inflation is going down almost as fast as it went up.

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The better news is from the (admittedly) more erratic monthly CPI figures also released on Wednesday. On this measure – which excludes a few items with prices that don’t generally change week to week or month to month, such as education costs – estimated inflation in the past year rose only 3.4%.

That is not only just a touch above the Reserve Bank’s target, it also puts us right next to the US:

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One criticism you may have heard from some sectors is that Australia’s........

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