Australian inflation has eased a little. An August interest rate rise now looks unlikely

Today’s inflation figures showed inflation pressures have eased, just a day after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) warned inflation was still too high. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported the consumer price index (CPI) rose 3.8% in the year to June, down from 4.0% in the year to May. The RBA’s preferred measure of underlying inflation, the trimmed mean, was steady at 3.6%. (The trimmed mean shows core inflation after excluding or “trimming” away the items with the largest price…