CPI Figures, AUD/USD Plunge!

<p>&nbsp;Pressure on the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) appears to have eased after being shown by readings of inflation data that slowed in the second quarter.</p><p><br /></p><p>Data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that the consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.8% in the second quarter, the smallest increase since the third quarter of 2021 and below market forecasts of 1.0%.</p><p><br /></p><p>The annual rate shows that the CPI slowed to 6% from 7% and also missed the expected 6.2%.</p><p><br /></p><p>Meanwhile in June, inflation met expectations by increasing to 5.4% from 5.6% recorded the previous month.</p><p><br /></p><p>This decrease was expected by Governor Philip Lowe who said the central bank would go to the data after raising interest rates 12 times in the past 15 months.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>This may ease some of the pressure on the RBA to keep raising interest rates.</p><p><br /></p><p>Even so, analysts believe that this data will give the central bank some more time to keep interest rates at a higher level.</p><p><br /></p><p>The current rate of inflation is also still far from the RBA's target range of 2-3% which is currently projected to return to target by mid-2025.</p><p><br /></p><p>Currency reaction saw the Aussie dollar plunge following the release of the data to trade 0.4% lower at 0.6763 against the USD.</p>