CAPITAL CITIES COMPARISON

At the All groups level, the CPI rose in all capital cities this quarter. Among the cities recording a positive movement, Darwin registered the highest increase with a rise of 1.9%, while all other cities were in the range of 0.6% to 1.2%.

The housing group recorded the largest positive contribution due to strong rises for all expenditure classes. The most significant contributor was the increase in electricity prices across seven capital cities, most notably in Sydney and Darwin.

Transportation was also a significant contributor to the quarterly movement showing increases in all cities. This was mainly due to automotive fuel which recorded strong rises in all cities particularly in Brisbane, due to the removal of the state government subsidy.

The health group was the largest negative contributor with drops in all cities. The biggest drop was in Sydney which recorded the largest fall for pharmaceuticals (-5.0%). The smallest drop was in Darwin (-2.7%).

The food group was the second largest negative contributor with drops in six cities ranging from -0.2% in Darwin to -1.0% in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. Adelaide recorded a small rise of 0.2% and Hobart had a flat movement. All cities recorded falls for fruit and vegetables. Adelaide recorded a much lower than average drop for fruit and vegetables and this combined with some rises for other food groups gave Adelaide an overall rise.

The larger quarterly increase for Darwin was mainly due to the increase in the housing group, where it was the most significant positive mover, showing a 3.6% positive movement. Recreation also increased significantly more than other cities as did Alcohol and tobacco. In addition, Darwin registered a significantly smaller offset in health and food prices.

Over the twelve months to September quarter 2009, the All groups CPI rose in all capital cities with the increases ranging from 0.6% in Melbourne to 2.7% in Darwin. The higher result in Darwin is largely due to stronger than average rises in housing, food, alcohol and tobacco, health and household contents and services.

CPI, All groups index numbers and percentage changes
	INDEX NUMBER(a)	PERCENTAGE CHANGE
	Sep Qtr 2009	Sep 2008 to Sep 2009	Jun Qtr 2009 to Sep Qtr 2009
Sydney	168.1	1.3	1.1
Melbourne	165.4	0.6	0.6
Brisbane	174.1	1.9	1.3
Adelaide	172.1	1.4	1.1
Perth	168.7	1.2	0.8
Hobart	167.7	1.8	1.2
Darwin	168.0	2.7	1.9
Canberra	169.9	1.4	0.9
Weighted average of eight capital cities	168.6	1.3	1.0
(a) Base of each index: 1989-90 = 100.0.