SEPTEMBER KEY FIGURES

	Jun Qtr 08 to Sep Qtr 08	Sep Qtr 07 to Sep Qtr 08
	% change	% change
Import Price Index all groups	5.0	9.6
Food and live animals	2.0	5.9
Beverages and tobacco	2.8	4.1
Crude materials, inedible, except fuels	12.3	30.4
Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials	12.1	64.2
Animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes	0.3	29.6
Chemicals and related products, n.e.c.	9.7	11.7
Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material	4.9	2.9
Machinery and transport equipment	1.1	-4.5
Miscellaneous manufactured articles	3.4	-1.9
Commodities and transactions, n.e.c.	3.1	22.3
Export Price Index all groups	13.8	32.9
Food and live animals	6.0	36.7
Beverages and tobacco	-4.1	-13.0
Crude materials, inedible, except fuels	6.8	22.7
Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials	42.4	109.3
Chemicals and related products, n.e.c.	4.1	2.4
Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material	-1.6	-7.2
Machinery and transport equipment	4.9	-0.2
Miscellaneous manufactured articles	6.5	0.3

SEPTEMBER KEY POINTS


IMPORT PRICE INDEX

• The Import Price Index increased by 5.0% in the September quarter 2008. The increase was mainly driven by rises in prices paid for petroleum, petroleum products and related materials (+12.1%), fertilisers (excluding crude) (+35.7%) and inorganic chemicals (+46.3%). These rises were partly offset by falls in prices paid for telecommunications equipment (-1.7%). Through the year to September quarter 2008, the Import Price Index increased by 9.6%. This is the largest annual increase since March quarter 2001.

EXPORT PRICE INDEX

• The Export Price Index increased by 13.8% in the September quarter 2008 and 32.9% through the year to September 2008. This is the largest quarterly and annual increase in the current Export Price Index since the series began in the September quarter 1974. The increase this quarter was mainly driven by rises in prices received for coal, coke and briquettes (+69.7%), metalliferous ores and scrap metal (+7.7%) and gas, natural and manufactured (+14.4%). These increases were partly offset by falls in prices received for non-ferrous metals (-5.6%) and petroleum, petroleum products and related materials (-1.5%).

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
December 2008	23 January 2009
March 2009	17 April 2009
June 2009	17 July 2009
September 2009	23 October 2009

CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

Both the Import Price Index and the Export Price Index have been reweighted in the September quarter 2008. This is in line with the ABS policy of reweighting these indexes annually in the September quarter, as explained in paragraphs 8-10 of the Explanatory Notes. The new weighting patterns are provided in an Appendix to this issue.

As foreshadowed in the June quarter 2008 issue of this publication, the ABS has completed a review of the International Trade Price indexes to incorporate recent updates to the classifications of Australian import and export statistics - see paragraphs 5-7 of the Explanatory Notes. An anomaly in the previous weighting pattern, identified during the introduction of the updated classifications, has resulted in more significant than usual changes to the contribution to the Import Price Index and the Export Price Index of SITC Division 28: Metalliferous ores and metal scrap and SITC Division 52: Inorganic chemicals.

Due to the annual reweighting and the changes resulting from the introduction of the new classifications, the points contribution data for June quarter 2008 shown in Tables 2, 8 and 17 differ from previous issues of this publication.


FORTHCOMING CHANGES

From the September quarter 2009, the content and format of tables 14, 15, 17 and 19 will change to reflect the contemporary industrial classification (ANZSIC06).


ROUNDING

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


DATA REFERENCES

Data referenced in the Key points are available from the tables shown in this publication, or in the corresponding tables of this publication on the ABS website <https://www.abs.gov.au>.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Lee Taylor on Canberra (02) 6252 6251.


SUMMARY COMMENTARY


COMMENTARY

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