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Australia's Central Bank Revises up Inflation Forecasts as Further Rate Hikes Flagged
Australia's central bank on Friday revised up its forecasts for core inflation and wages growth and warned further increases in inetrest rates would be needed to head off a damaging wage-price spiral. In a hawkish-sounding quarterly Statement on Monetary Policy, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said domestically-sourced cost pressures were still picking even if consumer price inflation was a whole may have finally peaked last quarter. While growth in global goods prices had cooled this was yet to show clearly in Australia, while inflation in the service sector had climbed faster than expected. "The Board ... (full story)