Australia’s headline inflation cooled further in the final three months of 2023, bolstering the case for the Reserve Bank to keep interest rates unchanged next week and sending the currency lower. The consumer price index advanced 4.1% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, coming in below economists’ estimate of 4.3%, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed Wednesday. A closely watched core inflation gauge — the trimmed mean — rose 4.2%, also less than forecast. The Australian dollar fell as much as 0.3% to 65.83 cents and the yield on policy-sensitive three-year bonds extended an earlier drop on easing ... (full story)