Australia’s Inflation Cools, Bolstering RBA’s Rate-Cut Case

Australia’s core inflation cooled in the three months through June, strengthening the case for the Reserve Bank to ease monetary policy as early as August on signs of abating price pressures.

The closely-watched trimmed mean gauge of consumer prices, which shaves off volatile items, advanced 0.6% in the second quarter from three months earlier, weaker than the 0.7% forecast, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed Wednesday. On an annual basis, it rose 2.7%, matching forecasts and down from 2.9% in the first quarter.