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1 ALL GROUPS, INDEX NUMBERS(A)
2 ALL GROUPS, PERCENTAGE CHANGES
CPI All GROUPS, WEIGHTED AVERAGE OF EIGHT CAPITAL CITIES, INDEX NUMBERS(a)

MARCH QTR KEY FIGURES

	Dec Qtr 2004 to Mar Qtr 2005	Mar Qtr 2004 to Mar Qtr 2005
Weighted average of eight capital cities	% change	% change
Food	0.9	0.8
Alcohol and tobacco	1.3	3.7
Clothing and footwear	-1.4	-1.9
Housing	1.0	4.0
Household furnishings, supplies and services	-1.3	-0.8
Health	4.0	5.7
Transportation	-1.0	2.9
Communication	0.4	1.5
Recreation	0.7	1.6
Education	6.0	6.2
Miscellaneous	0.9	2.6
All groups	0.7	2.4
All groups excluding Housing	0.5	1.9

All Groups, Quarterly change

Contribution to quarterly change, March quarter 2005

MARCH QTR KEY POINTS


THE ALL GROUPS CPI

• rose 0.7% in the March quarter 2005, compared with 0.8% in the December quarter 2004.

• rose 2.4% through the year to March quarter 2005.

• Contributing most to the overall increase this quarter were rises in pharmaceuticals (+16.8%), house purchase (+1.4%), domestic holiday travel and accommodation (+4.2%), secondary education (+7.0%), tobacco (+2.2%), tertiary education (+5.3%), vegetables (+4.3%), preschool and primary education (+6.4%), snacks and confectionery (+2.8%) and take away and fast foods (+1.1%).

• Partially offsetting these increases were falls in automotive fuel (-2.7%, see discussion on pages 4 and 5 for details), motor vehicles (-1.4%), furniture (-2.5%), audio, visual and computing equipment (-6.4%) and fruit (-3.5%).

• Contributing most to the through the year (annual) increase were rises in house purchase (+5.5%), automotive fuel (+9.0%), hospital and medical services (+5.8%), domestic holiday travel and accommodation (+6.8%), beer (+4.9%), rents (+2.1%), tobacco (+3.9%), and take away and fast foods (+2.8%). Partially offsetting these increases were falls in vegetables (-13.2%), audio, visual and computing equipment (-14.9%), motor vehicles (-1.6%), women's outerwear (-4.8%) and furniture (-1.8%).

INTRODUCTION OF THE 15TH SERIES CPI

The 15th Series Australian Consumer Price Index will be introduced from the September quarter 2005. Further details are contained in the appendix to this issue.

ROUNDING

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

ABBREVIATIONS

ABS Australian Bureau of Statistics

CPI Consumer Price Index

INQUIRIES

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

ANALYSES AND COMMENTS


MAIN CONTRIBUTORS TO CHANGE


CPI GROUPS

WEIGHTED AVERAGE OF EIGHT CAPITAL CITIES, Percentage change from previous quarter

HOUSING (+1.0%)

The rise in housing prices was mainly attributable to increases in house purchase (+1.4%), rents (+0.4%), electricity (+1.6%) and gas and other household fuels (+2.8%). There were no price falls.

The house purchase index rose in all capital cities, driven to a large extent by increasing labour costs, as a result of a general shortage of skilled tradesman, and rising material costs, particularly for structural timber, roofing materials and steel. The increases ranged from 0.2% in Canberra to 4.2% in Perth. In addition to the labour and material cost factors experienced in all capital cities, Perth's increase was particularly affected by a significant rise in roof tilers' rates following a recent industrial campaign.

Over the twelve months to March quarter 2005, housing prices rose 4.0%. All components of housing rose, with house purchase (+5.5%), rents (+2.1%), property rates and charges (+5.1%), electricity (+3.1%), house repairs and maintenance (+2.9%) and gas and other household fuels (+4.3%) being the most significant.

HEALTH (+4.0%)

The rise in health costs was due to increases in the net cost of pharmaceuticals (+16.8%), hospital and medical services (+0.5%) and dental services (+2.0%).

The cost of pharmaceuticals rose as a result of the cyclical reduction in the negative effect on prices of the PBS safety net that occurs at the start of each calendar year, together with an average increase of approximately 20% in the patient co-payment for PBS prescription pharmaceuticals from 1 January. The rise in hospital and medical services reflects increases in fees for specialists' services, combined with a cyclical reduction in the negative impact on out-of-hospital medical expenses of the Medicare Plus safety net at the start of each calendar year. These increases were partially offset by a reduction in the net cost of general practitioners' fees following an increase in the Medicare rebate for their services. A small increase in the overall bulk billing ratio for medical services also contributed to the offset.

Over the twelve months to March quarter 2005, health costs rose 5.7%. Hospital and medical services (+5.8%), pharmaceuticals (+6.3%) and dental services (+5.3%) were the main contributors to this increase.

EDUCATION (+6.0%)

All levels of education rose in the March quarter, coinciding with the commencement of the new school year. Secondary education rose 7.0%, tertiary education rose 5.3% and preschool and primary education rose 6.4%.

Secondary and primary education fees rose in order to cover increasing wage, IT and other operating costs. The increase in tertiary education was due to a CPI-indexed increase in HECS payments, together with the introduction of new HECS arrangements allowing tertiary institutions to increase fees by up to 25% for most courses, for students enrolling for the first time in 2005.

Over the twelve months to March quarter 2005, the cost of education rose 6.2%.

FOOD (+0.9%)

The rise in food prices was mainly due to increases in vegetables (+4.3%), snacks and confectionery (+2.8%), take away and fast foods (+1.1%) and beef and veal (+3.1%). These increases were partially offset by a fall in fruit prices (-3.5%).

Vegetable prices increased largely due to poor weather conditions and seasonal shortages affecting supplies of cauliflowers, lettuces, potatoes and broccoli. On the other hand, fruit prices fell as a result of plentiful supplies of bananas, stone fruit and grapes.

Over the twelve months to March quarter 2005, food prices rose 0.8%. The main contributors to the increase were take away and fast foods (+2.8%), restaurant meals (+3.2%), soft drinks, waters and juices (+3.7%), snacks and confectionery (+3.7%) and beef and veal (+5.6%). Partially offsetting these increases were falls in vegetables (-13.2%), poultry (-2.5%) and tea, coffee and food drinks (-3.3%).

TRANSPORTATION (-1.0%)

The decrease in transportation costs was due to falls in automotive fuel (-2.7%) and motor vehicles (-1.4%). These falls were partially offset by increases in motor vehicle repair and servicing (+1.3%) and urban transport fares (+1.2%).

The 2.7% decrease in automotive fuel prices in the March quarter 2005 may seem at odds with the high price levels currently being observed around the country. Automotive fuel prices for the CPI are obtained each day, including weekends and public holidays, from a broad sample of outlets across all regions within each of the eight capital cities. Prices are collected for unleaded petrol, premium unleaded petrol, LPG and diesel. For each capital city, daily prices for each fuel type are averaged over a month and then the monthly prices are averaged to arrive at a quarterly average price. The movements between the average quarterly price for each fuel type are weighted together to calculate a quarterly movement in the overall automotive fuel index.

The following graph shows the pattern of daily price behaviour for unleaded petrol for the 8 capital cities over the past 15 months. It is presented to illustrate the impact of this pattern on quarterly petrol prices, particularly the fall recorded in prices between the December quarter 2004 and the March quarter 2005. It also illustrates the significant rise in prices between March quarter 2004 and March quarter 2005 and the large swings between the lowest and highest daily prices recorded over this time.

UNLEADED PETROL DAILY AND QUARTERLY AVERAGE PRICES

CPI AUTOMOTIVE FUEL MONTHLY AND QUARTERLY INDEX NUMBERS
	2004			2004			2005
Index number	Jan	Feb	Mar	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar
Monthly	157.2	152.7	158.6	180.0	177.4	168.0	162.8	168.5	179.7
Quarterly average		156.2			175.1			170.3

Over the twelve months to March quarter 2005, transportation prices rose 2.9%. Automotive fuel (+9.0%), motor vehicle repair and servicing (+3.2%) and other motoring charges (+2.6%) were the main contributors to this increase, while a 1.6% fall in the price of motor vehicles partially offset the increase.

ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO (+1.3%)

Prices for all components of alcohol and tobacco rose this quarter with tobacco (+2.2%), beer (+1.2%) and wine (+0.5%) being the main contributors.

The increase for tobacco and beer was mainly due to the indexed adjustment to the rate of Federal excise and customs duty from 1 February. A reduction in the alcohol content of some beers, which is treated as a quality adjusted price increase, and the reversal of some discounting also contributed to the increase in beer prices.

Over the twelve months to March quarter 2005, alcohol and tobacco prices rose 3.7%. Prices for beer (+4.9%), tobacco (+3.9%), wine (+2.1%) and spirits (+2.4%) all rose.

HOUSEHOLD FURNISHINGS, SUPPLIES AND SERVICES (-1.3%)

Most categories of household furnishings, supplies and services recorded price falls this quarter with furniture (-2.5%), towels and linen (-4.1%) and glassware, tableware and households utensils (-4.3%) being the most significant. Small increases in floor and window coverings (+0.4%) and household services (+1.1%) partially offset these increases.

The decreases in the March quarter were largely due to post-Christmas/New Year sales at department and specialty stores.

Over the twelve months to March quarter 2005, household furnishings, supplies and services fell 0.8%. Falls in furniture (-1.8%), towels and linen (-6.1%), glassware, tableware and households utensils (-5.3%) and small electric household appliances (-7.0%) were partially offset by increases in household services (+3.3%), floor and window coverings (+1.8%) and other household supplies (+0.8%).

CLOTHING AND FOOTWEAR (-1.4%)

Clothing and footwear prices fell this quarter due mainly to decreases in men's outerwear (-2.4%), women's outerwear (-1.2%) and children's and infants' clothing (-3.2%). There were no significant price increases.

The price falls were mainly associated with post-Christmas/New Year sales at department and specialty clothing stores.

Over the twelve months to March quarter 2005, clothing and footwear prices fell 1.9%. Women's outerwear (-4.8%) was the most significant contributor to this decrease.

RECREATION (+0.7%)

The rise in the recreation index this quarter was mainly due to increases in domestic holiday travel and accommodation (+4.2%) and other recreational activities (+0.8%). Falls in audio, visual and computing equipment (-6.4%) and overseas holiday travel and accommodation (-1.3%) provided some offsetting price decreases.

The rise in domestic holiday travel and accommodation was due to the seasonal increase in holiday accommodation tariffs brought about by the strong demand in January each year, together with further demand arising from Easter falling in March this year. The decrease in prices for audio, visual and computing equipment resulted mainly from quality adjustment and exchange rate driven falls in computer prices and discounting on a number of home entertainment items by major retailers.

Over the twelve months to March quarter 2005, the recreation index rose 1.6%. The main contributors to this increase were domestic holiday travel and accommodation (+6.8%), sports participation (+4.3%), other recreational activities (+2.5%) and overseas holiday travel and accommodation (+1.4%). Audio, visual and computing equipment (-14.9%), audio, visual and computing media and services (-1.4%) and sports and recreational equipment (-2.1%) provided partially offsetting decreases.

TRADABLES AND NON-TRADABLES

The non-tradables component (see table 8) of the All groups CPI increased by 1.3% in the March quarter. This component includes goods and services whose prices are determined by domestic price pressures and which represents approximately 55% of the weight of the CPI. Within non-tradables, the services component rose 1.4%, driven mainly by increases in domestic holiday travel and accommodation, all levels of education, motor vehicle repair and servicing and rents. The non-tradables goods component rose 1.2% with house purchase, take away and fast foods, beer and electricity being the main contributors.

The tradables component of the CPI, which includes goods and services whose prices are largely determined on the world market, fell 0.1% in the March quarter. Falls in automotive fuel, motor vehicles, furniture, audio, visual and computing equipment, fruit and overseas holiday travel and accommodation were partially offset by increases in pharmaceuticals, tobacco, vegetables and snacks and confectionery.

Through the year to March quarter 2005, non-tradables rose 3.7% and tradables rose 0.6%. This compares with increases of 3.5% and 1.4%, respectively, for these components through the year to December quarter 2004.

CAPITAL CITIES COMPARISON


ALL GROUPS

Through the year to March quarter 2005, the All groups CPI rose in each of the eight capital cities. The increases ranged from 2.0% in Melbourne to 3.4% in Perth and 3.5% in Hobart. The higher annual movements for Perth and Hobart were mainly due to those cities recording increases for food, housing and recreation that were well above the national average.

CPI, All groups index numbers and percentage changes
	Index number(a)	Percentage change
	Mar Qtr 2005	Dec Qtr 2004 to Mar Qtr 2005	Mar Qtr 2004 to Mar Qtr 2005
Sydney	148.2	0.6	2.2
Melbourne	146.4	0.8	2.0
Brisbane	149.2	0.8	2.6
Adelaide	150.9	0.6	2.2
Perth	144.4	0.8	3.4
Hobart	148.0	0.9	3.5
Darwin	141.9	0.6	2.1
Canberra	147.0	0.5	2.2
Weighted average of eight capital cities	147.5	0.7	2.4
(a) Base of each index: 1989-90 = 100.0.

Period	Sydney	Melbourne	Brisbane	Adelaide	Perth	Hobart	Darwin	Canberra	Weighted average of eight capital cities
2000-01	133.2	131.6	132.4	133.5	129.6	132.0	130.9	131.9	132.2
2001-02	137.2	135.3	136.3	137.2	133.1	134.7	133.7	135.2	136.0
2002-03	141.1	139.7	140.7	142.7	136.8	139.1	136.8	139.7	140.2
2003-04	144.1	142.8	144.8	147.0	139.6	142.6	138.7	143.4	143.5
2001
March	134.0	132.2	132.7	134.1	129.6	132.1	130.7	132.2	132.7
June	135.0	133.0	134.0	135.1	131.4	133.4	132.2	133.4	133.8
September	135.4	133.6	134.2	135.3	131.5	132.8	132.5	133.2	134.2
December	136.6	134.8	135.8	136.6	132.6	133.9	133.5	134.9	135.4
2002
March	137.9	136.0	137.1	137.7	133.7	135.2	133.8	135.6	136.6
June	138.8	136.9	138.1	139.1	134.6	137.0	135.0	137.2	137.6
September	139.6	137.8	139.2	140.3	135.8	137.5	135.4	138.1	138.5
December	140.4	139.0	139.9	141.5	136.4	138.0	136.2	139.2	139.5
2003
March	142.1	140.9	141.8	144.6	137.4	140.0	137.5	140.7	141.3
June	142.2	140.9	141.8	144.3	137.4	140.8	137.9	140.7	141.3
September	142.4	141.8	143.3	145.4	138.6	141.1	137.8	141.9	142.1
December	143.6	142.1	144.2	146.2	139.2	142.0	138.5	142.9	142.8
2004
March	145.0	143.5	145.4	147.7	139.6	143.0	139.0	143.9	144.1
June	145.5	143.9	146.3	148.6	141.0	144.3	139.6	144.8	144.8
September	146.2	144.2	146.8	149.0	142.0	145.0	140.8	145.5	145.4
December	147.3	145.3	148.0	150.0	143.3	146.7	141.1	146.3	146.5
2005
March	148.2	146.4	149.2	150.9	144.4	148.0	141.9	147.0	147.5
(a) Base of each index: 1989-90 = 100.0.

Period	Sydney	Melbourne	Brisbane	Adelaide	Perth	Hobart	Darwin	Canberra	Weighted average of eight capital cities
Percentage Change (from previous financial year)
2000-01	6.2	6.0	5.9	5.7	5.5	5.8	5.4	6.2	6.0
2001-02	3.0	2.8	2.9	2.8	2.7	2.0	2.1	2.5	2.9
2002-03	2.8	3.3	3.2	4.0	2.8	3.3	2.3	3.3	3.1
2003-04	2.1	2.2	2.9	3.0	2.0	2.5	1.4	2.6	2.4
Percentage Change (from corresponding quarter of previous year)
2001
March	6.5	6.0	5.7	5.8	5.3	5.4	5.1	5.8	6.0
June	6.3	5.9	6.0	5.9	6.0	5.5	5.2	6.0	6.0
September	2.9	2.5	2.2	2.3	2.3	1.1	1.9	1.9	2.5
December	3.3	3.1	3.2	3.1	3.0	2.1	2.2	2.9	3.1
2002
March	2.9	2.9	3.3	2.7	3.2	2.3	2.4	2.6	2.9
June	2.8	2.9	3.1	3.0	2.4	2.7	2.1	2.8	2.8
September	3.1	3.1	3.7	3.7	3.3	3.5	2.2	3.7	3.2
December	2.8	3.1	3.0	3.6	2.9	3.1	2.0	3.2	3.0
2003
March	3.0	3.6	3.4	5.0	2.8	3.6	2.8	3.8	3.4
June	2.4	2.9	2.7	3.7	2.1	2.8	2.1	2.6	2.7
September	2.0	2.9	2.9	3.6	2.1	2.6	1.8	2.8	2.6
December	2.3	2.2	3.1	3.3	2.1	2.9	1.7	2.7	2.4
2004
March	2.0	1.8	2.5	2.1	1.6	2.1	1.1	2.3	2.0
June	2.3	2.1	3.2	3.0	2.6	2.5	1.2	2.9	2.5
September	2.7	1.7	2.4	2.5	2.5	2.8	2.2	2.5	2.3
December	2.6	2.3	2.6	2.6	2.9	3.3	1.9	2.4	2.6
2005
March	2.2	2.0	2.6	2.2	3.4	3.5	2.1	2.2	2.4
Percentage Change (from previous quarter)
2001
March	1.4	1.1	0.8	1.2	0.6	0.7	0.1	0.8	1.1
June	0.7	0.6	1.0	0.7	1.4	1.0	1.1	0.9	0.8
September	0.3	0.5	0.1	0.1	0.1	-0.4	0.2	-0.1	0.3
December	0.9	0.9	1.2	1.0	0.8	0.8	0.8	1.3	0.9
2002
March	1.0	0.9	1.0	0.8	0.8	1.0	0.2	0.5	0.9
June	0.7	0.7	0.7	1.0	0.7	1.3	0.9	1.2	0.7
September	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9	0.9	0.4	0.3	0.7	0.7
December	0.6	0.9	0.5	0.9	0.4	0.4	0.6	0.8	0.7
2003
March	1.2	1.4	1.4	2.2	0.7	1.4	1.0	1.1	1.3
June	0.1	0.0	0.0	-0.2	0.0	0.6	0.3	0.0	0.0
September	0.1	0.6	1.1	0.8	0.9	0.2	-0.1	0.9	0.6
December	0.8	0.2	0.6	0.6	0.4	0.6	0.5	0.7	0.5
2004
March	1.0	1.0	0.8	1.0	0.3	0.7	0.4	0.7	0.9
June	0.3	0.3	0.6	0.6	1.0	0.9	0.4	0.6	0.5
September	0.5	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.7	0.5	0.9	0.5	0.4
December	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.7	0.9	1.2	0.2	0.5	0.8
2005
March	0.6	0.8	0.8	0.6	0.8	0.9	0.6	0.5	0.7

		Quarter ending
Year	31 March	30 June	30 September	31 December
1985	68.1	69.7	71.3	72.7
1986	74.4	75.6	77.6	79.8
1987	81.4	82.6	84.0	85.5
1988	87.0	88.5	90.2	92.0
1989	92.9	95.2	97.4	99.2
1990	100.9	102.5	103.3	106.0
1991	105.8	106.0	106.6	107.6
1992	107.6	107.3	107.4	107.9
1993	108.9	109.3	109.8	110.0
1994	110.4	111.2	111.9	112.8
1995	114.7	116.2	117.6	118.5
1996	119.0	119.8	120.1	120.3
1997	120.5	120.2	119.7	120.0
1998	120.3	121.0	121.3	121.9
1999	121.8	122.3	123.4	124.1
2000	125.2	126.2	130.9	131.3
2001	132.7	133.8	134.2	135.4
2002	136.6	137.6	138.5	139.5
2003	141.3	141.3	142.1	142.8
2004	144.1	144.8	145.4	146.5
2005	147.5
(a) Base of each index:1989-90 = 100.0