Rising profit margins turbo-charged Australia’s latest inflation figures – but something worse is just around the corner
It is rare for economic data to be out of date the moment it is published – and yet that is the case with the February inflation figures out on Wednesday at 11.30am. By 11.31am they had been digested and ignored amid a flurry of “before the full impact of the Iran war” comments.
In February, annual inflation was 3.7%, down slightly from 3.8% in January, with underlying inflation unchanged at 3.3%.
If the graph does not display click here
Normally this would probably have had markets anticipating a rate rise in May, given it remains well above 3%, but that was already the case due to the governor of the Reserve Bank a couple weeks ago suggesting that “we don’t want to have a recession, but if it’s hard to get inflation down, then you know we’re going to have to deal with that possibility”
If the graph does not display click here
More worrying is how many more interest rates rises investors now anticipate.
On the day before the bombing of Iran, the market anticipated the cash rate rising to 4.1%. Even after the bombing, the market initially saw only bad news for the global economy and foolishly thought the RBA would be wary of raising rates.
But by 17 March, after the RBA governor and deputy made it very clear they wanted to raise rates, the market was pricing in at least two rate rises this year and a strong chance of........
