Australia’s annual inflation accelerated in September, while the latest five-city petrol average stood 61.8 Australian cents per liter above its Feb. 20 level, as affordability drew attention after U.S. midterm calls.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said annual Consumer Price Index inflation reached 4.3% in September, up from 4.0% in August. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) put average retail petrol at 232.7 Australian cents per liter across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth on Nov. 4. That was 61.8 cents above the Feb. 20 reading, about a week before the conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran escalated.
Associated Press race calls gave Democrats control of both chambers, a result covered in EconoTimes’ earlier coverage of Democrats winning chamber control. AP called the Senate at 11:36 p.m. ET Tuesday, Nov. 3, and the House at 1:24 a.m. ET Wednesday, Nov. 4. Those calls are not final certified results.
An AP Voter Poll of about 80,000 voters across all 50 states found that roughly half considered cost of living and government corruption each crucial to their congressional vote. About one-quarter said the same of AI data centers. Separately, about three-quarters opposed a new data center in their community; that response does not establish that data centers drove the election result or show how Australian voters view the issue.
Separately, The Guardian reported that Bruce Wolpe, a senior fellow at the United States Studies Centre, said the Albanese government was taking a hit from the Iran conflict’s economic fallout. Wolpe said voters were asking, “Have they lost control of the economy?” Elliot Clarke, Westpac’s head of international economics, told the newspaper the results changed the conflict’s “atmospherics” and called that “positive news.”
Australia’s National Cabinet agreed in August that federal, state and territory governments would develop mandatory data-center standards covering energy, water and land use. The government plans legislation in early 2027. The ABS is scheduled to publish October CPI figures on Nov. 25.
