MARCH KEY FIGURES

		Dec Qtr 2011 to Mar Qtr 2012	Mar Qtr 2011 to Mar Qtr 2012
Weighted average of eight capital cities		% change	% change
All groups CPI		0.1	1.6
Food and non-alcoholic beverages		-2.1	-2.5
Alcohol and tobacco		1.4	3.5
Clothing and footwear		-1.8	1.5
Housing		0.6	3.4
Furnishings, household equipment and services		-1.1	0.7
Health		4.4	4.2
Transport		1.1	2.5
Communication		0.1	1.6
Recreation and culture		-2.0	-0.9
Education		6.0	6.0
Insurance and financial services		1.0	4.0
CPI analytical series
	All groups CPI, seasonally adjusted	-0.2	1.5
	Trimmed mean	0.3	2.2
	Weighted median	0.4	2.1

All Groups CPI, Quarterly change

Contribution to quarterly change

MARCH KEY POINTS


THE ALL GROUPS CPI

• rose 0.1% in the March quarter 2012, compared with no change in the December quarter 2011.
• rose 1.6% through the year to the March quarter 2012, compared with a rise of 3.1% through the year to the December quarter 2011.

OVERVIEW OF CPI MOVEMENTS

• The most significant price rises this quarter were for pharmaceutical products (+14.1%), secondary education (+7.7%), automotive fuel (+2.5%), medical and hospital services (+2.1%), tertiary education (+4.7%) and rents (+1.0%).
• The most significant price falls this quarter were for fruit (-30.0%), international holiday travel and accommodation (-4.8%), furniture (-6.0%), audio, visual and computing equipment (-6.3%) and domestic holiday travel and accommodation (-2.0%).

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
June 2012	25 July 2012
Sept 2012	24 October 2012
December 2012	23 January 2013
March 2013	24 April 2013

CHANGES IN FUTURE RELEASES

From the September quarter 2012, all index numbers will be calculated on a new index reference period of 2011-12. This will result in the index numbers for each index series being reset to 100.0 for the financial year 2011-12. Period-to-period percentage changes may differ slightly to those previously published due to rounding and the re-referencing. These differences do not constitute a revision. Further information on re-referencing can be found in Chapter 12 of Information Paper: Consumer Price Index Concepts, Sources and Methods, 2011 (cat. no. 6461.0).


ROUNDING

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


INQUIRIES

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