There is renewed speculation an interest rate rise could come sooner rather than later, with official inflation numbers showing the Queensland floods and unrest in the Middle East pushed consumer prices higher than expected.

More expensive fruit and vegetables and higher petrol prices saw headline inflation for the year push outside the Reserve Bank's comfort zone.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) consumer price index (CPI) spiked by 1.6 per cent in the March quarter to an annual rate of 3.3 per cent, above the Reserve's 2 to 3 per cent target band.

The data has sent the dollar rocketing to a fresh 29-year high.

The biggest rises were seen in petrol, up 8.8 per cent, vegetables, 16 per cent, fruit, 14.5 per cent, and pharmaceuticals, 12.5 per cent.

Some of these rises have been offset by falls in furniture prices, down 6.5 per cent, and audio and visual equipment, down 7.2 per cent.

Overseas holidays and motor vehicles are also slightly less expensive.

All in all, the effect of Cyclone Yasi and the floods, while expected to have a big impact, has been bigger than thought.

But that is probably not news to anyone who has been out shopping or filling up their cars recently.

The Reserve Bank looks at what is known as the trimmed mean, which strips out volatile one-off factors such as the cost of fruit and vegetables and petrol prices.

Throughout the year it has made the point that these disaster-related rises would be one-offs and the economy probably would recover.

Even despite the higher-than-expected result, chief economist at BT Financial, Chris Caton, does not think it is enough to force a pre-emptive interest rate rise next month.

"What an amazing number of one-offs [there are] in here, and of course if you get enough one-offs, you may have to concede there is a systemic problem," he said.

"I think this is a flukish number at this stage, but having said that, this is how inflation numbers do begin.

"[It] certainly suggests the probability of a rate rise has increased. I still think that it will be in the second half of the year rather than the first half."

But National Australia Bank chief economist Alan Oster says the Reserve will be worried by the latest data.

"They don't like the fact that 70 per cent of the index is going higher than they thought, and in all likelihood is probably likely to get worse as we go through the course of the year," he said.

"Remember, we've still got the rebuilding of Queensland to get under way, we've got large commodity price increases, and we've got very large increases in mining investment projects."

The big rise in headline inflation sent the Australian dollar higher as markets lifted their expectations of interest rate rises.

About noon (AEST) the dollar had climbed as high as $US108.5 cents.