Australia’s stubbornly high inflation rate is starting to look out of kilter with Consumer Price Index (CPI) results across industrialised countries.
Year-on-year headline inflation, released by the OECD overnight, showed falls in 22 of the 35 OECD countries.
Across the board, the annual CPI decreased to 3.3 percent in January 2026, from 3.6 percent in December 2025.
This compared with Australia’s January inflation rate of 3.8 percent, unchanged over the 12 months.
The OECD figures showed the number of countries with inflation at or below two percent rose from nine to 15 over the 12 months.
“Despite the recent slowdown in headline inflation, average price levels across the OECD stood 35.6 percent higher in January 2026 than in December 2019, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the OECD report said.
“OECD energy inflation fell by 2.1 percentage points in January 2026 to reach minus 0.6 percent, its first negative value since May 2025.
“Food inflation also declined, by 0.2 percentage points. Despite these January decreases, energy and food price levels have risen by 40.8 percent and 47.5 percent, respectively, since December 2019.”
Other highlights included:
- France registered the lowest headline inflation in the G7 at 0.3 percent, a 0.5 percentage point drop from December, due to declines in energy and core inflation.
- Headline inflation in Japan fell below 2 percent in January for the first time since March 2022.
- In the United States, headline inflation also decreased, reaching 2.4 percent.
- Germany recorded an increase, from 1.8 percent to 2.1 percent.
- The United Kingdom remains the only G7 country with headline inflation above 3 percent, despite a 0.4 percentage point drop.
- Headline inflation in China fell to 0.2 percent, down 0.3 percentage points from January of the previous year.
- Inflation declined slightly in Saudi Arabia and South Africa, while rising in Argentina, India, and Indonesia, and was broadly stable in Brazil.
