Curbing 32-year high inflation remains 'main game', says Australia's treasurer
Australia's Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said the record 32-year high inflation in the country remains a big economic challenge for the government.
The inflation rate in Australia rose to 7.8 percent in the final quarter of the fiscal year of 2022, reaching its steepest place since March 1990. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is devising plans to bring the rate down again to a target range of 2-3 percent by mid-2025.
Speaking on the sidelines of the G20 financial leaders' meeting in Bengalaru, India, Chalmers said the global economy was on an "incredibly narrow path" with "the inflation challenge on one side, and a big global downturn on the other."
"Everybody here is trying to navigate that narrow and perilous path, we do have a big inflation problem in the global economy and in our own economy," Chalmers told a Sky News reporter, according to a government transcript.
Chalmers insisted that inflation was the "defining challenge" in the Australian economy as well as the global scene, warning against complacency in this field. "For the time being inflation is the main game. It's true of the world and it's true of us."
"Even though the peak of inflation is likely to be behind us, it will still be higher than we'd like for longer than we'd like," he said.
Chalmers cited the war in Ukraine as a key driver of fuel prices, in turn, resulting in the overall soaring inflation and rise in the cost-of-living.
In a bid to curb the surging inflation, the Central Bank of Australia raised the interest rate for a ninth straight time this month to a decade-high of 3.35 percent.
However, the RBA warned that further interest hikes were needed to head off a damaging wage-price spiral. The next RBA Board meeting and Official Cash Rate announcement will be on the 7th March 2023.
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