Australia data – Westpac / Melbourne Institute Consumer inflation expectations for October, +3.4%

  • prior +3.5%

Trimmed mean in at 3.3%

Says Westpac:

  • The bump up in the trend of expectations, seen through the first half of 2014, has completely faded and we are now back to the lows last seen in Oct and Nov of 2013
  • Inflationary expectations have clearly eased back; maybe for now falling petrol prices are more important in the formation of expectations than a falling AUD
  • Consumers are increasing seeing a very benign outlook for inflation
  • While the recent fall the AUD is yet to impact on broader prices in the economy, when (or if) these price pressures do come through via import prices they will be doing so from a very low and well anchor point in inflationary expectations. For now, it appears that falling petrol prices may be the bigger factor.