After a string of stronger-than-expected monthly inflation readings, Wednesday’s much anticipated June quarter Consumer Price Index data has likely averted an increase in the Reserve Bank’s 4.35 per cent cash rate at its two-day board monetary policy meeting next week. Borrowers will breathe a sigh of relief for the reprieve.

Yet under the ideal scenario – on which the government had hoped to stake its re-election – the Reserve Bank’s “narrow path” to return inflation to target should by now have been putting interest rate cuts on the table.