While the usual suspects - the cost of petrol, housing and financial services - remain central to high inflation, ICAP senior economist Adam Carr said the events of recent times had taken the focus away from rising prices.
"The threat posed by the credit crisis far outweighs any concerns over inflation,'' Mr Carr said.
"The reality is the credit crisis does have the potential to lead to a recession and that has to be dealt with first.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cut the cash rate by a stunning 1 percentage point this month, in a dramatic bid to cushion the economy from a global slowdown.
It was the most aggressive monetary policy easing since the 1992 recession, and brought the cash rate to 6 per cent for the first time in almost two years.
Economists expect inflation figures to show a record a rise of 1.1 per cent in the September quarter. That would mean an annual growth of 4.9 per cent, an AAP survey of 12 economists showed.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will release the CPI data on Wednesday,October 22.
The headline CPI rose 1.5 per cent in the June quarter, for an annual rate of 4.5 per cent - the largest annual increase in twelve and a half years.
In terms of monetary policy, the RBA's focus is on the underlying measures of inflation - the weighted median and the trimmed mean - which exclude volatile prices from CPI calculations.
Underlying CPI inflation rose 1.1 per cent in the June quarter, for an annual rate of 4.4 per cent, which was a near 17-year high.
The RBA wants inflation to return to its target band of between two and three per cent over the course of the economic cycle.
The central bank said after its board meeting earlier this month CPI was "likely to show an increase of around five per cent over the four quarters to September''
"But the bank remains of the view that inflation will start to decline in 2009,'' the RBA said.
Moody's economy.com economist Matt Robinson said the statement indicated the RBA would not be swayed by a big inflation number from its plan to ease monetary policy.
"I don't actually think CPI will be 5 per cent and I don't think the RBA thinks it's going to be five per cent, but if it is, it's not going to change their current view,'' Mr Robinson said.
"There's going to be no inflationary pressures next year.''
In its August statement on monetary policy, the central bank forecast underlying inflation to fall back inside the target band by the June quarter of 2010.
ANZ Banking Group economist Riki Polygenis said the changed global picture since August meant inflation was likely to return back within the band sooner than the RBA's most recent forecast.
"The economic outlook is now weaker than it was in August due to the huge falls in financial markets around the world and the much more negative outlook for global growth,'' Ms Polygenis said.
Dollar hits five-year low, below US69c
Q&A: Interest rate cuts won’t have immediate impact
Jobless claims dim recovery hopes
World economy - is now the time to panic?
