Fresh insights into inflationary pulse incoming

Before the release of October consumer price index numbers on Wednesday, Commonwealth Bank of Australia economists expect headline annual inflation to come in at 2.1 per cent, in line with September's result.

Economist Stephen Wu said falling prices for rents, electricity, holiday travel and fuel would keep the headline rate within the two per cent to three per cent target band.

Yet annual trimmed mean measure in the from the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures is tipped to tick higher to 3.4 per cent, from 3.2 per cent.

Under-pressure borrowers could be waiting for interest rate relief until well into 2025. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)

Rather than indicative of re-accelerating inflation, however, Mr Wu said there were less favourable annual base effects at play; that is, large price falls a year ago not being repeated.

Care must be taken when considering the monthly inflation readout from the Australian Bureau of Statistics as its not as comprehensive as the quarterly version.

The central bank has kept interest rates high at 4.35 per cent for more than 12 months to tame inflation.

Under-pressure borrowers are hoping for repayment relief as soon as possible but the wait could be well into 2025.

Of the economic teams at the big banks, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ are still predicting a February start.

Yet Westpac last week joined NAB in pushing out its expected start date to May, citing a sharp improvement in consumer sentiment and a particularly resilient labour market.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said his government had overseen substantial progress on inflation.

"We've seen headline, underlying and non-tradeable inflation all come off significantly and we'll get another set of numbers today," Dr Chalmers said.

"We also know inflation doesn't moderate in a perfectly straight line and we see that around the world, with inflation ticking up recently in the US, UK, Canada and Euro area."