Australia’s official inflation rate over the past year is 1.3%, its slowest annual pace in nearly three years, official figures showed on Wednesday, Xinhua reported. The low-inflation figure has prompted economists to predict that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) would lower interest rates from 2.5% to 2% next month. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said the consumer price index (CPI) figures lifted by 0.2% in the three months to March, bringing the annual rate to 1.3%. This is well below the bottom of the Reserve Bank’s 2-3% inflation target. Global oil prices have recently fallen to five-year low pushing local petrol prices under A$1 (77 US cents)-a-liter in some areas, from around A$1.30 in early December.
