6474.0 - Selected Living Cost Indexes: 17th Series Weighting Pattern, Sep 2017  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 06/11/2017  First Issue
   Page tools: Print Print Page Print all pages in this productPrint All

MAIN FEATURES

This data cube, which can be found in the "Downloads" tab above, is a spreadsheet that contains the detailed household expenditure weighting patterns that are used in the 17th series Selected Living Cost Indexes (SLCIs). The SLCIs incorporate the Analytical Living Cost Indexes (ALCIs) and Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index (PBLCI). These weights will be used to calculate the SLCIs from December quarter 2017.

The SLCIs measure the impact of price change across different sub–groups of the Australian population. They are produced as a by–product of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and are the conceptually preferred measures for assessing the effect of changes in prices on the out–of–pocket living expenses experienced by different types of Australian households.

Households have been categorised based on the principal source of household income, primarily derived from the Household Expenditure Survey (HES). The ALCIs are prepared for four types of Australian households:

    • Employee households (i.e. those households whose principal source of income is from wages and salaries);
    • Age pensioner households (i.e. those households whose principal source of income is the age pension or veterans affairs pension);
    • Other government transfer recipient households (i.e. those households whose principal source of income is a government pension or benefit other than the age pension or veterans affairs pension); and
    • Self–funded retiree households (i.e. those households whose principal source of income is superannuation or property income and where the HES defined reference person is 'retired' (not in the labour force and over 55 years of age)).

The PBLCI combines the Age pensioner and Other government transfer recipient households. The ABS currently publishes these indexes quarterly in Selected Living Cost Indexes (cat. no. 6467.0).

The 17th series SLCIs will contain new household expenditure weighting patterns (using 2015-16 Household Expenditure Survey (HES) data and data from other sources). The 17th series SLCIs will be introduced in respect of the December quarter 2017 and will be linked to the 16th series at the September quarter 2017. As the SLCIs are derived using information from the CPI, they will be impacted by changes as a result of the introduction of the 17th series CPI. For more information regarding the 17th series CPI, please refer to Information Paper: Introduction of the 17th Series Australian Consumer Price Index, 2017 (cat. no. 6470.0.55.001).

This data cube contains detailed 17th series weighting patterns by group, sub–group and expenditure class for each household type. It also includes the average weekly household expenditure (in September quarter 2017 prices) for each of the household types and a comparison between the 16th and 17th series weights.

For the 17th series, weighted average of eight capital cities expenditure estimates have been used in deriving the weights for all population sub–groups, consistent with the price collection and weighting pattern used for the CPI. For Self–funded retirees, this represents a change from the 16th series, where the weights were derived using national expenditures.

INQUIRIES

For more information regarding the 17th series SLCI, please contact the Consumer Price Index Section, on 02 6252 6654.