Inflation up, carbon tax blamed

Just as the economy gets the staggers, here comes the carbon tax, driving inflation higher than expected:

Data out today showed inflation rose 1.4 per cent in the three months to the end of September following the introduction of the carbon tax on 1 July. Economists polled by Bloomberg tipped a 1 per cent rise as the impact of the carbon tax filtered through the economy.

On an annual basis, inflation increased 2 per cent, up from a 1.2 per cent rise in the year to June, the ABS said…

RBC Capital Markets senior economist Su-Lin Ong said the carbon tax had moved inflation up faster than anticipated...

And remember, this tax - which costs us money and jobs - will do absolutely nothing to stop any global warming.

In fact, the planet has not warmed in 16 years.

UPDATE
Not quite going to script, says Professor Sinclair Davidson:

From the carbon price Treasury modelling:

Carbon pricing will change the relative prices of goods and services and there will be an initial increase in the level of consumer prices. An initial impact will occur in 2012-13 with the introduction of the price, with a smaller step up in 2015-16, when the scheme moves to the international carbon price. For the core policy scenario, carbon pricing is estimated to raise the overall consumer price level by 0.7 per cent in 2012-13 and by a further 0.2 per cent in 2015-16, for a total of 0.9 per cent in 2015-16. Beyond 2015-16 there will be minimal implications for ongoing inflation.

Today the CPI figures are out. The Australian reports:

The consumer price index (CPI), a key measure of inflation, rose 1.4 per cent in the September quarter, after rising by 0.5 per cent in the June quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.
It is the first set of inflation data released since the introduction of the federal government’s carbon tax on July 1.

The CPI was expected to rise by 1.1 per cent in the September quarter for an annual rate of 1.7 per cent, according to an AAP survey of 15 economists.

Read on.