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SYDNEY - Interest rates could be on the way up next month after new inflation figures showed price pressures in the economy were rising at a faster-than-expected pace, economists said.
HSBC chief economist John Edwards said higher petrol prices were to blame for the big jump in inflation in the June quarter.
"I think it means the Reserve Bank has to move in August," Edwards said.
Australia's trimmed mean consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.9 per cent in the June quarter, for an annual growth rate of 2.7 per cent, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said.
The weighted median CPI rose 0.9 per cent in the June quarter, with an annual rise of 2.8 per cent.
Market economists had expected the average of the two measures to rise by 0.7 per cent in the June quarter for an annual rate of 2.5 per cent.
The headline CPI rose by 1.2 per cent in the June quarter, for an annual rate of 2.1 per cent.
The median market forecast was for a rise of 1 per cent in the June quarter and an annual pace of 1.9 per cent.
"Given the strength of economic growth overall, I think that all the circumstances are in place for a tightening," Edwards said.
"You can't exclude another one."
ANZ chief economist Saul Eslake said RBA would be thinking carefully about tightening monetary policy.
"At this stage my on-balance judgment is they won't go, but it's a much finer judgment," he said.
"It certainly puts the issue of a rate rise back on the table."
The next central bank board meeting will be on August 7, and the outcome will be known the day after.
- AAP
