Challenging times remain, but there's a glimmer of hope when it comes to inflation

Westpac expects the Official Cash Rate to reach a peak of four percent by the end of this year.

The Reserve Bank's releasing its quarterly Monetary Policy Statement tomorrow -- with the OCR currently sitting at 2.5 percent.

Westpac Acting Chief Economist Michael Gordon says it's reasonably safe to say the inflation rate has peaked.

He says it's probably not going to be pretty anytime soon -- but is on track to becoming more tolerable in the next few years.