Headline inflation lifts, underlying still soft

Summary: Inflation rate higher than expected in December quarter; RBA preferred measure in line with market expectations; tobacco tax increases main driver of result, childcare costs also features again; economists focus on subdued underlying result.   In the early 1990s, entrenched inflation in Australia was broken by the “recession we had to have” as it became known. Since then, core consumer price inflation has averaged around 2.3%, a little below...

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