NOTES
ROUNDING
Any discrepancies between totals and sums of components in this publication are due to rounding.
CPI DATA RE-REFERENCED TO JUNE 1998 = 100.0
The index reference period for the CPI data used throughout this publication has been re-referenced to June quarter 1998 = 100.0. All index numbers and percentage changes shown are calculated on this basis. This may lead to some minor differences from the figures published in Consumer Price Index, Australia (cat. no. 6401.0)
CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE
The index numbers and percentage change data previously provided in the appendix, "Living Cost Indexes and the CPI", are now available as a time series spreadsheet on the Downloads tab.
A further time series spreadsheet is available providing index numbers for Gross insurance, Mortgage interest and Consumer credit. These series are compiled for the Analytical Living Cost Indexes for Selected Australian Household Types and are not included in the Consumer Price Index.
PERIOD COVERED BY THIS ISSUE
This publication updates the annual analytical living cost indexes for selected Australian households with data up to June quarter 2008. The indexes now cover the period from June quarter 1998 up to and including June quarter 2008.
Prior to June quarter 2006, these indexes were published annually in the Australian Economic Indicators, (cat. no. 1350.0). For these earlier releases, see the articles in:
Australian Economic Indicators - 1350.0 - Jun 2001
Australian Economic Indicators - 1350.0 - Dec 2002
Australian Economic Indicators - 1350.0 - Oct 2003
Australian Economic Indicators - 1350.0 - Sep 2004
Australian Economic Indicators - 1350.0 - Sep 2005
INQUIRIES
For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Lee Taylor on (02) 6252 6377 or email <lee.taylor@abs.gov.au>.
SUMMARY COMMENTARY
KEY POINTS
The Analytical Living Cost Indexes for Selected Australian Household Types (ALCI) have been designed to answer the question:
'By how much would after tax money incomes need to change to allow households to purchase the same quantity of consumer goods and services that they purchased in the base period?'
Over the four quarters from June 2007 to June 2008, changes in living costs ranged from a low of 4.3% (Self-funded retiree households) to a high of 5.7% (Employee households). The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 4.5% over the same period.
Over the ten year period covered by the indexes, changes in living costs for each household type have tracked closely to the CPI. The living costs of Employee households showed the highest increase of 40.2%, slightly higher than the 36.0% increase in the CPI. Self-funded retirees have experienced an increase of 34.8%. The living costs of Other government transfer recipient households increased by 38.9% and those of Age pensioner households by 37.7%.
These differences have come about for a number of reasons. The inclusion of mortgage interest and consumer credit charges in the analytical indexes has a significant impact for Employee and Other government transfer recipient households. The different treatment of housing has contributed to higher increases for Employees, Age pensioners and Other government transfer recipients. Different weighting patterns for food items have contributed to lower annual percentage changes for Age pensioners and Self-funded retiree households, much of which can be attributed to fruit and vegetable prices.
For a discussion of the relationship between the ALCI and CPI, see the Explanatory Notes.
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