MARCH KEY FIGURES

	Dec Qtr 2009 to Mar Qtr 2010	Mar Qtr 2009 to Mar Qtr 2010
Weighted average of eight capital cities	% change	% change
Food	1.1	0.7
Alcohol and tobacco	1.3	3.5
Clothing and footwear	-4.3	-1.8
Housing	1.5	6.1
Household contents and services	-1.3	1.4
Health	4.7	5.1
Transportation	1.3	4.1
Communication	-0.1	0.2
Recreation	-1.0	1.2
Education	5.6	5.7
Financial and insurance services	2.0	2.0
All groups	0.9	2.9
All groups excluding Housing and Financial and insurance services	0.6	2.1

All Groups, Quarterly change

Contribution to quarterly change, March Quarter 2010 - March Quarter 2010

MARCH KEY POINTS


THE ALL GROUPS CPI

• rose 0.9% in the March quarter 2010, compared with a rise of 0.5% in the December quarter 2009.
• rose 2.9% through the year to March quarter 2010, compared with a rise of 2.1% through the year to December quarter 2009.

OVERVIEW OF CPI MOVEMENTS

• The most significant price rises this quarter were for automotive fuel (+4.2%), pharmaceuticals (+13.3%), deposit and loan facilities (+3.4%), vegetables (+10.3%), electricity (+5.9%), house purchase (+1.2%) and hospital and medical services (+2.9%).
• The most significant offsetting price falls were for furniture (-4.6%), fruit (-5.7%), domestic holiday travel and accommodation (-2.3%), audio, visual and computing equipment (-5.9%), men's outerwear (-6.7%) and children's and infants' clothing (-9.9%).

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
June 2010	28 July 2010
September 2010	27 October 2010
December 2010	25 January 2011
March 2011	27 April 2011

CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

The previous 'Analyses and Comments' section of this publication has been split into 'Main Contributors to Change' and 'Capital Cities Comparison'. There has been no change in the level of detail or content provided.


CPI REVIEW UPDATE

The ABS is currently undertaking a major review of the CPI. Information paper: Issues to be considered during the 16th Series Australian Consumer Price Index Review, December 2009 (cat.no. 6468.0) is available at <https://www.abs.gov.au>.

Public forums were held in each capital city during February and March 2010. Submissions to the review closed on 12 March 2010 and are available at <https://www.abs.gov.au>. The outcomes from the review will be announced in December 2010. The 16th series CPI will be implemented in October 2011, in respect of the September quarter 2011.


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.