Australia’s central bank on Tuesday raised benchmark policy rates for a second straight time, pushing them to their highest since April 2025 at 4.1%. The 25 basis points hike was in line with expectations from analysts polled by Reuters, and comes as Australia’s inflation stays above the central bank’s upper limit of 3%, with the war in the Middle East risking a further rise in prices. “While inflation has fallen substantially since its peak in 2022, it picked up materially in the second half of 2025,” the Reserve Bank of Australia said in its statement. That echoes concerns raised by Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser, ... (full story)