There's a bigger economic threat starting to rumble ominously just beyond our immediate headline hogs of housing affordability and energy: What if inflation rises and wages don't?

It's a problem exercising the minds of retail analysts as their sector (already in a spot of bother) would be the first to feel the obvious impact of such a scenario – weaker consumption spending.

And with consumption accounting for about 60 per cent of the economy and the government relying on real consumption growth of about 3 per cent to keep the overall GDP growth above trend, Houston might not have a problem but Canberra and much of the rest of the nation would.

The worrying thing is that the analysts are starting to paint just such a picture, one that tells a story of spending power being squeezed by wages growth that fails to match a pick-up in key prices.