Across Australia, millions carrying the weight of mortgages found a moment of reprieve this week as inflation eased unexpectedly to 3.8% in June, pulling back from the 4% recorded the previous quarter. The Reserve Bank of Australia, which had been contemplating yet another turn of the interest rate screw, now appears likely to hold steady at its August meeting — a pause that speaks to the slow, grinding work of monetary policy finding its footing. Yet beneath the relief lies a more complicated truth: the forces driving prices in restaurants, construction sites, and service industries are not s