SYDNEY—Australia’s core inflation flew to its fastest annual pace since 2014 in the December quarter as fuel and housing costs led broad-based price pressures, a shock that will stoke market speculation of an early hike in interest rates. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics out on Tuesday showed the headline consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.3 percent in the fourth quarter and 3.5 percent for the year, topping forecasts. The trimmed mean measure of core inflation favoured by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) jumped 1.0 percent in the quarter, the largest increase since 2008. The annual pace picked up to 2.6 percent, above both the 2.3 percent forecast and the middle of the RBA’s 2 percent to 3 percent target range. That will be a surprise to the RBA, which had expected core inflation would not reach 2.5 percent until the end of 2023, a major reason it …