The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on Tuesday kept cash rate unchanged at 4.35 percent, with interest rate paid on Exchange Settlement balances steady at 4.25 percent.
The Consumer Price Index rose 0.6 percent in the December 2023 quarter and 4.1 percent annually, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Despite progress of bringing down inflation from a peak of 7.8 percent in the December 2022 quarter, the highest level since 1990, the central bank said that inflation remained high, especially in the prices of services. “Services price inflation, however, declined at a more gradual pace in line with the RBA’s earlier forecasts and remains high.—Xinhua