MARCH KEY FIGURES

		Dec Qtr 2013 to Mar Qtr 2014	Mar Qtr 2013 to Mar Qtr 2014
Weighted average of eight capital cities		% change	% change
All groups CPI		0.6	2.9
Food and non-alcoholic beverages		0.3	2.2
Alcohol and tobacco		2.9	6.8
Clothing and footwear		-2.1	0.5
Housing		0.6	3.6
Furnishings, household equipment and services		-1.5	0.9
Health		2.6	4.0
Transport		1.1	2.5
Communication		0.2	1.9
Recreation and culture		-0.5	2.7
Education		5.1	5.1
Insurance and financial services		0.4	1.3
CPI analytical series
	All groups CPI, seasonally adjusted	0.5	2.9
	Trimmed mean	0.5	2.6
	Weighted median	0.6	2.7

All Groups CPI, Quarterly change

Contribution to quarterly change

MARCH KEY POINTS


THE ALL GROUPS CPI

• rose 0.6% in the March quarter 2014, compared with a rise of 0.8% in the December quarter 2013.
• rose 2.9% through the year to the March quarter 2014, compared with a rise of 2.7% through the year to the December quarter 2013.

OVERVIEW OF CPI MOVEMENTS

• The most significant price rises this quarter were for tobacco (+6.7%), automotive fuel (+4.1%), secondary education (+6.0%), tertiary education (+4.3%), medical and hospital services (+1.9%) and pharmaceutical products (+6.1%).
• These rises were partially offset by falls in furniture (-4.3%), maintenance and repair of motor vehicles (-3.3%), international holiday travel and accommodation (-2.4%) and domestic holiday travel and accommodation (-2.4%).

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
June 2014	23 July 2014
September 2014	22 October 2014
December 2014	28 January 2015
March 2015	22 April 2015

CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

For the quarter beginning 1 January 2014, the ABS has replaced field collected prices with prices derived from transactions data for a subset of products within the total CPI sample where analysis has shown transactions data provides a reliable measure of product prices. The price movement in the March quarter 2014 for this subset of products was calculated using historical and current quarter transactions data. A detailed description of the use of transactions data to compile the Australian CPI can be found on the ABS website in the September quarter 2013 issue of Consumer Price Index, Australia, ABS cat.no. 6401.0.


ROUNDING

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


INQUIRIES

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