Consumer Price Index showed an acceleration to 2.9%, the highest rate since July. With such high inflation, the Fed is unlikely to cut rates in January.

The largest price rises were alcohol and tobacco, along with recreation and culture, while housing and transport offset the increase.

Compared with the same period a year earlier it rose 3.2%, below both the consensus for a 3.3% rise as well as the central bank’s most recent forecast of a 3.4% increase.Trimmed mean inflation in the third quarter was 3.

Australian consumer prices rose at the slowest pace in almost four years in the December quarter, while a pullback in housing costs helped cool core inflation and open the door to a cut in interest rates as early as next month.