In this regard, latest figures show an unfortunate rise in unemployment in the first quarter of 2012. The past twelve months also saw a mild breach of the Reserve Bank’s 3–6 per cent inflation target, with the headline CPI rate increasing to 6,3 per cent in January before retreating to 6,0 per cent in March.
Price pressures over the past year have remained essentially of a cost-push nature. The moderate pace of “core” inflation (4,4 per cent in March when excluding food, petrol and energy) shows that despite some evidence of price pressures becoming more broad-based, these are still expected to remain contained by the relatively subdued state of the domestic economy.