NOTES
FINAL ISSUE OF AVERAGE RETAIL PRICES
The ABS recently completed an extensive review of its CPI and has announced changes to ensure the CPI continues to meet the requirements of the Australian community. One outcome of the review is the discontinuation of this publication, Average Retail Prices of Selected Items, Eight Capital Cities (cat. no. 6403.0.55.001).
The review determined that the Average Retail Prices (ARP) data neither performs the function of showing price change over time (temporal measure) nor a detailed price level comparison between capital cities (spatial measure) in an unbiased, robust manner. For more details about the review, please refer to the Information Paper: Outcome of the 16th Series Australian Consumer Price Index Review, December 2010 (cat. no. 6469.0), or www.abs.gov.au.
The June quarter 2011 release is the final of Average Retail Prices of Selected Items, Eight Capital Cities.
The 16th series CPI will be introduced from the September quarter 2011. This will include a new commodity classification and expenditure weights from the 2009-10 Household Expenditure survey. See the section 'Changes to the CPI from September Quarter 2011' in the June quarter 2011 Consumer Price Index (cat. no. 6401.0) for more details on these and other changes.
INQUIRIES
For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.
SUMMARY COMMENTARY
CAT. NO. 6403.0.55.001 AVERAGE RETAIL PRICES OF SELECTED ITEMS: EIGHT CAPITAL CITIES
The average prices in this publication are presented for the purpose of making price comparisons between the capital cities for individual items.
CAUTION: The average prices for some items may not be completely comparable from city to city, nor from quarter to quarter (see the explanatory notes for more information). It is not appropriate to add together these items as no supporting information is provided on the relative importance of the items in the spending patterns of the households in each city. It is also not appropriate to compare item prices over time as the specifications and quality of items actually priced vary from period to period. Comparisons over time of prices for the range of products consumed by households are provided by the CPI.
This data cube contains average retail prices of selected items included in the Consumer Price Index for the eight capital cities. These average retail prices of selected items should be regarded as no more than approximate indicators of price levels for the items concerned as the selected grades, brands, package size, etc. for some items differ between cities and may also differ from one period to the next due to changes in product specifications. For example, potatoes may be priced as washed or brushed, loose or bagged, depending on what is most representative for a particular city.
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