From the September quarter 2012, all index numbers are calculated on a new index reference period of 2011-12. This results 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 is available in Chapter 12 of Consumer Price Index Concepts, Sources and Methods, 2011 (cat. no. 6461.0) and within Re-referencing Frequently Asked Questions.
		This issue now includes the Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index and the Analytical Living Cost Indexes that had previously been released in separate products.

SEPTEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Jun Qtr 12 to Sep Qtr 12	Sep Qtr 2011 to Sep Qtr 2012
Weighted average of eight capital cities, All groups		% change	% change
Selected Living Cost Indexes (LCIs) - Household type:
	Pensioner and Beneficiary LCI (PBLCI)	1.6	2.0
	Employee LCI	0.9	1.0
	Age Pensioner LCI	1.9	2.0
	Other Government Transfer Recipient LCI	1.4	2.0
	Self-funded Retiree LCI	1.7	1.5
Consumer Price Index (CPI)		1.4	2.0

Percentage change for Household type - June Quarter 2012 to September Quarter 2012

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
December 2012	30 January 2013
March 2013	1 May 2013
June 2013	31 July 2013
September 2013	30 October 2013

CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

From the September quarter 2012, all index numbers are calculated on a new index reference period of 2011–12. This results 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. Information on re-referencing and re-referencing conversion factors are available in Appendix 1 of this publication. Further information on re-referencing is available in Chapter 12 of Consumer Price Index Concepts, Sources and Methods, 2011 (cat. no. 6461.0) and within Re-referencing Frequently Asked Questions.

From the September quarter 2012, this product now presents information which had previously been released in two separate products, Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index (cat. no. 6467.0) and Analytical Living Cost Indexes for Selected Australian Household Types (cat. no. 6463.0).

From the September quarter 2012, the Downloads tab of this issue contains three Time Series Workbooks which present longer time series of the statistics presented in this product.

ROUNDING

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

TIME SERIES DATA

Longer time series of statistics presented in this product are available from the Downloads tab for this product on the ABS website. They are available as Time Series Workbooks:

• TABLE 1. All Groups, Index Numbers and Percentage Changes, by Household Type
• TABLE 2. Commodity Groups, Index Numbers, Percentage Changes and Points Contributions, by Household Type
• TABLE 3. Gross Insurance, Mortgage Interest and Consumer Credit, Index Numbers and Percentage Changes, by Household Type

INQUIRIES

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



SUMMARY COMMENTARY


THE LIVING COST INDEXES

The Living Cost Indexes (LCI) 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?'

In the September quarter 2012, changes in the living costs of pensioner and beneficiary households (PBLCI) rose 1.6%. Over the same period, the living costs of age pensioner households rose 1.9%, self-funded retiree households rose 1.7%, other government transfer recipient households rose 1.4% and employee households rose 0.9%. For more information about the September quarter 2012 results, see Main Contributors to Change.

These differences have come about for a number of reasons. The inclusion of mortgage interest and consumer credit charges in the living cost indexes has a significant impact on employee and other government transfer recipient households. The inclusion of mortgage interest and consumer credit charges and the different treatments of housing and insurance in the LCIs result in variations between the LCIs and the CPI series. The expenditure patterns of those households measured by the LCIs differ from those of the overall household sector covered by the CPI. This also contributes to differences in the percentage changes.

For a discussion of the relationship between the LCIs and CPI, see the Explanatory Notes.