Pressure on RBA to cut rates; EU trade deal falters; Ozempic maker tumbles

It's Thursday the 31^st of July 2025, and inflation has fallen to its lowest level since early 2021, heaping pressure on the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates in two weeks’ time. The long-awaited figures were broadly in line with the central bank’s forecasts. Headline inflation came in at 0.7 per cent for the quarter which translated to 2.1 per cent for the year – the lowest in more than four years. The underlying or trimmed mean rate, which takes out volatile items, measured 0.6 per cent for the quarter, and 2.6 per cent for the year.

Listen to today's episode 🎧

APPLE PODCASTS

SPOTIFY

News in brief

Australia has joined 14 other nations to “express willingness … to recognise the state of Palestine, as an essential step towards the two-state solution” after the UK government said it would recognise Palestinian statehood in September unless Israel meets key conditions.

Teenagers between the ages of 13 and 16 will be banned from creating YouTube accounts in a major policy backflip by the Albanese government as it prepares to implement a world-first higher minimum age to access social media platforms.

The deadline for the setting of US tariffs is fast approaching - in fact it’s tomorrow – 1 August. And Australia isn’t close to a deal, while talks on a trade deal with the European Union also look to be faltering.

President Donald Trump said he fell out with Jeffrey Epstein because the convicted sex offender had poached staff from his club’s spa, including Virginia Giuffre, the woman at the centre of an underage sex scandal involving Prince Andrew.

The share price of Novo Nordisk, the company behind revolutionary diabetes and weight loss drugs, crashed 30pc yesterday after announcing weaker than expected sales and profits for the June half, and a relatively poor outlook.

Fear-o-meter

There are more items in the CPI basket of goods rising by less than two per cent, than over three per cent. Trimmed mean inflation for the quarter is 0.6 per cent, meaning on an annualised basis it's 2.4 per cent. Unemployment is rising – not dramatically, but the trend is higher.

Surely the Reserve Bank should cut interest rates when its board meets next month.

Governor Michelle Bullock stressed after the last board meeting that rate cuts were on the way. The central bank just needed a little bit more information.

That information has arrived. The Reserve Bank needs to cut interest rates.

Who's talking today?

On what Australia needs to do to harness the potential of AI, whether he misses running Atlassian, and whether he's optimistic about Australia's technology future:

"I totally am optimistic, both at that level of nation building where the data centres can really make a difference for us. We just have so many natural advantages that if we parlay them now, we can grow them into long-term enduring advantages. But also the opportunity for businesses to take up this new technology.

We have a government with a strong majority now, so they can't point to anyone else holding them back. It's up to them to set the tone and tenor of where we want to be as a nation and I think we have the opportunity to skate to where the puck is going as a nation.

My experience as a technologist is if you live in the future you start creating it and if as a country we can start living in that future we can start creating it."

LISTEN TO INTERVIEW 🎧

Greed-o-meter

Where have we seen the biggest increases in inflation over the last 12 months? Look no further than your local supermarket - particularly eggs.

	Item	Inflation
1	Eggs	19.1%
2	Lamb & goat	12.1%
3	Tobacco	11.6%
4	Coffee, tea and cocoa	9.4%
5	Education	5.5%
6	Fruit & vegetables	4.6%

Source: ABS & AMP

Forwarded from a friend? Sign up to our daily newsletter

SIGN UP