igures released this morning, Wednesday, April 29, during the Asian session by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that consumer price inflation rose to 4.6% year-on-year in March, its highest level in over two years. This compares to 3.7% growth in February and was below expectations of 4.8%. The index also rose 1.1% month-on-month in March, after showing no growth in February (expectations were for 1.3%).

The most significant increase in the index in March came from the energy sector, where car fuel prices rose by 32.8% month-on-month and 24.2% year-on-year. The food and non-alcoholic beverages index rose by 3.1%, and clothing and footwear prices increased by 7.1%.