Australia’s Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Sunday that the worst part of the country’s inflation crisis was in the past.
Ahead of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) releasing consumer price index (CPI) data for the final quarter of 2022 on Wednesday, Chalmers said he was optimistic that price increases would start to moderate in 2023.
Wednesday’s data is expected to reveal another rise in the CPI but both the Treasury and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) have predicted a peak in the December quarter.
Chalmers said the cost of living pressures would continue to affect millions of Australians but stressed that relief would be a key part of May’s federal budget.—NNI
