DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

	Sep Qtr 2010 to Dec Qtr 2010	Dec Qtr 2009 to Dec Qtr 2010
Weighted average of eight capital cities	% change	% change
Food	2.2	2.5
Alcohol and tobacco	0.8	11.4
Clothing and footwear	-1.9	-4.8
Housing	0.6	5.0
Household contents and services	-0.6	-0.2
Health	-1.2	5.0
Transportation	0.2	1.7
Communication	0.1	-0.4
Recreation	0.2	-1.9
Education	0.0	5.7
Financial and insurance services	-0.4	2.2
All groups	0.4	2.7
All groups excluding Housing and Financial and insurance services	0.4	2.0

All Groups, Quarterly change

Contribution to quarterly change, December Quarter 2010

DECEMBER KEY POINTS


THE ALL GROUPS CPI

• rose 0.4% in the December quarter 2010, compared with a rise of 0.7% in the September quarter 2010.
• rose 2.7% through the year to the December quarter 2010, compared with a rise of 2.8% through the year to the September quarter 2010.

OVERVIEW OF CPI MOVEMENTS

• The most significant price rises this quarter were for fruit (+15.5%), vegetables (+11.4%), domestic holiday travel and accommodation (+3.8%), automotive fuel (+2.1%) and house purchase (+0.7%).
• The most significant offsetting price falls were for pharmaceuticals (-6.2%), deposit and loan facilities (-1.3%), motor vehicles (-1.0%), audio, visual and computing equipment (-4.8%) and motor vehicle repair and servicing (-1.9%).

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
March 2011	27 April 2011
June 2011	27 July 2011
September 2011	26 October 2011
December 2011	25 January 2012

OUTCOME OF THE 16TH SERIES CPI REVIEW

The ABS recently completed an extensive review of its CPI and has announced changes to ensure the CPI continues to meet the requirements of the Australian community. The 16th series CPI will be introduced from the September quarter 2011. For more details about changes to the CPI, please refer to Information Paper: Outcome of the 16th Series Australian Consumer Price Index Review (cat. no. 6469.0), or www.abs.gov.au.

Subject to the level of interest, the ABS is proposing to hold public information sessions to explain the planned changes to the CPI, and respond to any questions people may have about the changes. If interest permits, sessions will be held in ABS capital city offices during February. To register your interest please contact the ABS at cpi.review@abs.gov.au or on (02) 6252 7124 by February 4, 2011


IMPACT OF THE FLOODS

Flooding in Queensland began in late December 2010. It is expected that the first significant economic impact of this and floods in other states will be reflected in the March quarter 2011 release of this publication.

Price collection for the December quarter 2010 was not affected by the floods.


ROUNDING

Any discrepancies between totals and sums of components in this publication are due to rounding.


LINKS TO OTHER PARTS OF THIS RELEASE ON THE WEBSITE

To access the 'Main Contributors to Change' data on the ABS website <https://www.abs.gov.au> use the link 'Main Contributors to Change' as shown below.

To access the 'Capital Cities Comparison' data on the ABS website <https://www.abs.gov.au> use the link 'Capital Cities Comparison' as shown below.

The standard way to access links to other parts of this or any release on the ABS website <https://www.abs.gov.au> is by selecting the required link from the links list in the box at the top left hand side of the 'Summary' page.

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.