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CONSUMER PRICE INDEX

• Perth's Consumer Price Index (CPI) has decreased for the past two quarters, falling 0.3% in the December 2008 quarter and 0.1% in the March 2009 quarter.
• Financial and insurance services (-5.9%) was the most significant contributor to the March decrease, with deposits and loan facilities prices falling by almost 14%.
• Another significant contributor to the price decrease was clothing and footwear (-5.4%), particularly men's and women's outer wear, the prices of which both fell by about 8%. Transportation costs (automotive fuel down 10%) and recreation (domestic holiday travel down 6.5%) were also drivers of the fall in the Perth CPI.
• In contrast, the March quarter saw price increases in health (4.2%) and education (5.3%). This reflected the higher price of pharmaceuticals and secondary education (up more than 10% and 8% respectively). The price of food rose by 2.3% in the March 2009 quarter, with vegetables up 5.4%.

CONSUMER PRICE INDEX (ALL GROUPS), Change from same quarter previous year

• In the year to March 2009, Perth's CPI rose 2.2%, slightly less than the nation's CPI rise of 2.5%. All Australian capital cities recorded positive price rises, with Brisbane the largest (3.1%) followed by Darwin (2.8%), while Melbourne had the smallest (2.1%).
• The main contributors to Perth's annual price rise were alcohol and tobacco (6.0%), housing (5.5%) and education (5.3%). Alcohol price rises were particularly high for spirit beverages (up 15%) while increased housing costs were largely due to rising rents (up 11%). Prices in the preschool/primary and secondary education sectors both rose around 8%.

1 Consumer Price Index(a), by Group - Perth
	CHANGE FROM PREVIOUS FINANCIAL YEAR		CHANGE FROM SAME QUARTER PREVIOUS YEAR	CHANGE FROM PREVIOUS QUARTER
	2006-07	2007-08	Mar 09	Dec 08	Mar 09
	%	%	%	%	%
All groups	4.0	3.6	2.2	-0.3	-0.1
Food	5.4	4.2	4.8	1.2	2.3
Alcohol and tobacco	3.6	4.1	6.0	1.3	0.8
Clothing and footwear	-0.9	-0.9	-3.5	1.1	-5.4
Housing	7.4	4.6	5.5	0.8	0.5
Household contents and services	2.3	-0.7	2.7	1.1	0.3
Health	5.3	5.4	5.2	-0.6	4.2
Transportation	2.4	4.7	-5.8	-6.5	-2.6
Communication	1.3	0.3	1.0	0.4	0.4
Recreation	1.9	2.0	-0.2	0.9	-0.5
Education	6.9	7.8	5.3	-	5.3
Financial and insurance services(b)	2.0	5.7	0.2	-0.6	-5.9
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a) Unless otherwise specified, base of each index: 1989-90 = 100.0.
(b) Base of index: June quarter 2005 = 100.0.
Source: Consumer Price Index, Australia, cat. no. 6401.0.