Australian consumer price inflation (CPI) has been below the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) 2-3% annual target for more than two years, helping to explain why it isn’t lifting interest rates like policymakers at the Bank of Canada, Bank of England and US Federal Reserve. Economists expect that trend continued in early 2018. Of the 20 polled by Bloomberg, the median forecast for underlying CPI — of more importance when it comes to the outlook for interest rate settings — is for a quarterly increase of 0.5%, leaving the change on a year earlier at 1.85%. In the December quarter, underlying CPI rose by 1.87% from a ... (full story)