ABS to release new monthly CPI Indicator

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will release an Information Paper outlining the new monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) Indicator on Tuesday 16th August.

Australian Statistician Dr David Gruen AO said the indicator would be an important tool for policy makers, academics and businesses with the Information Paper including the design of the monthly CPI Indicator, research findings and monthly data from 2018 to June 2022.

“This new monthly CPI Indicator will provide a timelier guide to inflation in Australia,” Dr Gruen said. “The Information Paper will show how the monthly CPI Indicator can provide an earlier guide to inflation developments, particularly in times of significant change.

“One important point of distinction with the monthly Indicator is that, while it will include prices for all the items in the CPI basket, not all these prices will be updated each month.

The quarterly CPI will continue to be Australia’s key measure of inflation with the new monthly Indicator an aide to this, providing quicker insights.”

Once released, the ABS will welcome feedback on the Information Paper until 13 September 2022. The ABS intends to publish the first standalone monthly CPI Indicator publication in October, alongside the regular quarterly CPI release.

“The monthly CPI Indicator has been made feasible by using new data sources to reduce data collection costs, particularly scanner data and web-scraping techniques to provide high frequency data at lower cost,” Dr Gruen said.

“The use of new data sources has seen the ABS generate a range of timely new insights across the economy without asking more of Australian businesses and households.”