The good news for the Reserve Bank of Australia is that it will go into its first policy meeting for 2024 in a better place on inflation than even its own economists were expecting. The bad news is that the hard work is still not done - and if you believe the adage about tempering high inflation, there is more hard work yet to go. Australian inflation, at the headline level, has a 4-handle for the first time since the end of 2021. While it's not a figure in the RBA's cherished 2-3% threshold, a 3.4% inflation print for December is a relief to the Reserve Bank and a small vindication for markets that have been betting ... (full story)