Australia's fluctuating cost of living offers Reserve Bank a rates riddle

June quarter inflation offers little to guide the RBA, but they do mark the last time Joe Hockey can claim the carbon tax abolition is keeping inflation down

The June quarter inflation figures are always looked at with interest to see how they will affect chances of an interest rate cut at the coming RBA meeting. The latest figures will do little to nudge the RBA one way or the other but they reveal a large difference in price rises across the nation and also the final impact of the end of the carbon price on electricity.

The figures came in pretty much on expectations. The consumer price index grew 0.7% in the quarter, and the RBA's "core inflation" figures of the trimmed mean and weighted median grew 0.6% and 0.5% respectively.