Australian CPI up 0.6 % in 3rd quarter

The Australian consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.6 percent in the September quarter 2011, compared with a rise of 0.9 percent in the June quarter 2011, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said on Wednesday. The ABS said the CPI, the key measure of inflation, rose 3.5 percent from the September quarter 2010 to the September quarter 2011, compared with a rise of 3.6 percent through the year to the June quarter 2011. Economists' forecasts for the headline CPI had centered on a rise of 0.6 percent in the quarter, for an annual rate of 3.5 percent. The ABS data show that Australian inflation has eased but is still above the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) two to three percent target range, which makes an imminent interest rate cut unlikely. The result was in line with what most economists had been expecting.