RBA’s Bullock: High Inflation Cannot Be Tolerated

Bullock's framing matters less for the rate path itself than for the credibility signal: explicitly flagging that inflation could overshoot the RBA's own August baseline, and citing energy prices well above that baseline, marks a shift from forecasting to risk management. The immediate audience is domestic — mortgage holders, businesses and the currency — but the read-across for global markets is the reminder that an energy-driven inflation impulse can force central banks to stay restrictive even as growth softens. Whether Bullock's concern is validated by subsequent data, or proves a hawkish hedge against a forecast that already looked stale, is the open question.