RBA Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser Says Inflation Remains Australia's Biggest Problem, Not Yet Time for Drastic Action

The Reserve Bank's deputy governor, Andrew Hauser, knows Australians are "furious" about inflation and while he is determined to bring it down, he says the RBA is not at the point where it has to take more drastic action.

In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Hauser told 7.30 that inflation was the major problem for Australia's central bank, as he acknowledged Australians were struggling with the continued high cost of living and rising interest rates.

He indicated those rates could rise higher in the coming months.

While Mr Hauser defended the Australian economy as "doing quite well" on issues of unemployment and real household incomes, he singled out the continuing scourge of inflation as the nation's biggest problem.

You can read more about what he told 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson here:

Welcome to the ABC's finance blog! I'll be guiding you through the latest market action for the next few hours.

It appears the Australian share market is on track to open slightly higher this morning.

ASX futures, which are a rough indicator of how the market may open, have risen by 0.2%.

So it suggests the local market is on track to recover marginally from yesterday's 1% drop, which brought it down to a six-week low.

That's despite a rough session on Wall Street, on its first day back from the Labor Day public holiday. The Dow Jones index fell 1.2%, while the S & P 500 and Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.6% and 0.3% respectively.

The Australian dollar has edged up slightly to 72.2 US cents.

Oil prices spike as war flares up

The most obvious indicator of the Middle East war getting worse is the oil price, with Brent crude futures jumping 2.4% to $US99.34 a barrel.

Oil prices have now surged back to where they were in late July, so around a six-week high.

This coincides with reports that Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen attacked Saudi energy facilities, setting oil installations ablaze.

The Houthis attacked four cities in the south of Saudi Arabia, which is a US ally, on Tuesday, wounding more than 70 people.

Meanwhile, US forces struck multiple Iranian tankers tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

That was in response to Iranian attempts to hit a US Navy warship, an American official said, marking a resumption of US attacks on Iran after a two-day pause.