Inflation leaps to 4% stoking fears of fifth interest rate hike before Christmas

Jim Chalmers says ‘higher global oil prices flowing through to oil prices in Australia’ are to blame for inflation rising from 3.5%

Inflation has jumped to 4% in the year to August, from 3.5%, as Jim Chalmers was again forced to defend Labor’s economic management amid fears the Reserve Bank will need to hike interest rates again before Christmas.

The increasingly embattled treasurer was accused of “gaslighting” Australians by insisting that government spending was not responsible for high inflation, blaming instead higher fuel costs associated with the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran.

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