MARCH KEY FIGURES

	Dec Qtr 11 to Mar Qtr 12	Mar Qtr 11 to Mar Qtr 12
	% change	% change
Import Price Index all groups	-1.2	2.1
Food and live animals	-1.0	3.8
Beverages and tobacco	-0.2	-4.0
Crude materials, inedible, except fuels	-7.3	-8.7
Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials	1.0	15.4
Animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes	-9.9	-4.4
Chemicals and related products, n.e.s.	-1.9	0.0
Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material	-1.1	0.7
Machinery and transport equipment	-1.6	-2.7
Miscellaneous manufactured articles	-1.5	0.6
Commodities and transactions, n.e.s.	-3.9	17.1
Export Price Index all groups	-7.0	1.0
Food and live animals	-4.5	-2.4
Beverages and tobacco	-2.4	-7.2
Crude materials, inedible, except fuels	-10.8	-7.0
Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials	-8.6	13.1
Animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes	-9.6	-20.5
Chemicals and related products, n.e.s.	2.3	5.4
Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material	-0.5	-9.2
Machinery and transport equipment	0.1	-0.7
Miscellaneous manufactured articles	-2.9	-4.5
Commodities and transactions, n.e.s.	-4.3	15.8

IMPORT PRICE INDEX: all groups, Quarterly % change

EXPORT PRICE INDEX: all groups, Quarterly % change

MARCH KEY POINTS


IMPORT PRICE INDEX

• The Import Price Index fell 1.2% in the March quarter 2012. Through the year to the March quarter 2012, the Import Price Index rose 2.1%.

EXPORT PRICE INDEX

• The Export Price Index fell 7.0% in the March quarter 2012. Through the year to the March quarter 2012, the Export Price Index rose 1.0%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
June 2012	20 July 2012
September 2012	1 November 2012
December 2012	31 January 2013
March 2013	2 May 2013

REVIEW OF THE PRODUCER AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE PRICE INDEXES

The ABS published the outcomes from a major review of the Producer and International Trade Price Indexes on 6 March 2012. More information on the review can be found in Information Paper: Outcome of the Review of the Producer and International Trade Price Indexes, 2012 (cat. no. 6427.0.55.004).


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: Producer and International Trade Price Indexes, Concepts, Sources and Methods, 2006 (cat. no. 6429.0).


CHANGES TO RELEASE TIMETABLE

As announced in the Information Paper: Outcome of the Review of the Producer and International Trade Price Indexes, 2012 (cat. no. 6427.0.55.004) from the September quarter 2012, the ABS will delay the timing of this publication by nine working days. The Forthcoming Issues section (see above) has been updated to reflect this change.


ROUNDING

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


DATA REFERENCES

Data referenced in the Key Points and Commentary 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.