Monthly Consumer Price Index Indicator

This is not the latest release View the latest release

The monthly CPI indicator is a measure of inflation and includes statistics about prices for categories of households expenditure

Reference period
April 2023
Released
31/05/2023

Key statistics

  • The monthly CPI indicator rose 6.8% in the twelve months to April.
  • The most significant price rises were Housing (+8.9%), Food and non-alcoholic beverages (+7.9%) and Transport (+7.1%).

What's new this month

Underlying inflation data

Following the monthly Trimmed mean being discontinued in December 2022, the ABS undertook an investigation to explore alternative measures. This release includes two new indicators of underlying inflation: ‘Annual trimmed mean’ and ‘CPI excluding volatile items and holiday travel’. The investigation found these two measures provide a reasonable indicator of the principal measure of underlying inflation, which is the quarterly Trimmed mean, published in the quarterly CPI publication. The previously published series 'CPI excluding volatile items' will be available in the spreadsheets under 'Data downloads'. Further details of the investigation are available in About the monthly CPI indicator.

Detailed monthly data

In addition, this release includes a table of detailed monthly data for the 87 expenditure classes measured in the CPI. The table provides the monthly movements for the three most recent months. Prices for some expenditure classes are collected less frequently than monthly. In these cases, prices from the previous period are carried forward, resulting in a zero movement for the months that prices are not collected.  The months where a zero movement has been imputed for these expenditure classes are indicated as 'imp'. This table is available in the  Detailed monthly data  and will be updated each month in future releases of the monthly CPI indicator. As previously stated, the monthly CPI indicator data may be subject to revisions. Any revisions to data will be marked as revised in the table.

International CPI comparisons

Also released today is an article on CPI international comparisons, which provides analysis of inflation in Australia compared to selected countries and explains how measurement of the CPI differs between countries.

Main features

Weighted average of eight capital cities, annual movement
 

Feb 22 to Feb 23

% change

Mar 22 to Mar 23

% change

Apr 22 to Apr 23

% change

All groups monthly CPI6.86.36.8
Food and non-alcoholic beverages8.08.17.9
     Bread and cereal products12.510.811.4
     Meat & seafood3.34.34.4
     Dairy and related products14.315.114.5
     Fruit & vegetables5.85.93.5
     Food products n.e.c.11.811.811.7
     Non-alcoholic beverages6.67.29.7
Alcohol and tobacco4.34.94.8
     Alcohol4.55.45.1
     Tobacco4.13.94.3
Clothing and footwear3.73.22.0
    Garments3.83.03.5
Housing9.79.58.9
     Rents4.85.36.1
     New dwelling purchases by owner-occupiers13.011.19.2
     Electricity15.615.715.2
Furnishings, household equipment and services6.67.26.3
Health5.05.44.7
Transport5.60.87.1
     Automotive fuel5.6-8.29.5
Communications1.21.20.2
Recreation and culture6.46.16.4
     Holiday travel and accommodation14.913.911.9
Education5.65.55.5
Insurance and financial services5.66.66.7
CPI analytical series   
       Seasonally adjusted7.16.66.9
       CPI excluding volatile items* and holiday travel6.86.96.5
       Annual Trimmed mean6.56.56.7

 

*Volatile items are Fruit and vegetables and Automotive fuel

Monthly Overview

The monthly CPI indicator annual movement rose 6.8% in April, up from 6.3% in March.

The annual movement for the monthly CPI excluding volatile items and holiday travel rose 6.5% in April, down from 6.9% in March. This series excludes Fruit and vegetables, Automotive fuel and Holiday travel and accommodation.

Annual trimmed mean rose 6.7% in the year to April.

*Volatile items are Fruit and vegetables and Automotive fuel

Inflation continues to ease for New dwellings

New dwelling prices rose 9.2% in the year to April reflecting labour and material cost increases. Fewer grant payments from the Federal Government's HomeBuilder program and similar state-based housing construction grants also contributed to the rise in new dwelling prices over the year. 

The rate of price growth has continued to ease compared to the record high increase of 21.7% for the year to July 2022. This reflects a softening in new demand and improvements in the supply of materials.

Increased growth for Rents

Rent prices increased 6.1% in the year to April 2023, up from 5.3% in March, with low vacancy rates reflecting strong demand for rental properties and tight rental markets. 

Food and non-alcoholic beverages prices still elevated

Food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 7.9% in the year to April 2023, with price rises seen across all food categories. These increases reflect price pressures from higher input costs.

The main contributors were:

  • Food products n.e.c. which rose 11.7%, due to high ingredient, packaging and processing costs for products such as potato chips and edible oils.
  • Dairy and related products which rose 14.5%, due to increasing farmgate milk prices flowing through to various dairy products.

In monthly terms, broad-based price rises were seen across all categories with the exception of Fruit and vegetables due to improved supply for fruit items such as avocados and bananas.

Automotive fuel prices rise

Automotive fuel prices rose 9.5% in the year to April 2023, which follows a fall of 8.2% in March. The increase in the annual movement in April is largely due to base effects from the changes to the fuel excise tax introduced on 30 March 2022. The 22 cents per litre fuel excise cut saw a monthly fall of 13.8% in automotive fuel prices in April 2022. The fall in April 2022 no longer contributes to the annual movement for April 2023.

In monthly terms, Automotive fuel prices rose 2.9% due to higher wholesale prices being passed onto consumers.

Holiday travel and accommodation

Holiday travel and accommodation rose 11.9% in the year to April, down from 13.9% in March. While demand and prices remain elevated for both Domestic and International holiday travel and accommodation, prices have fallen since peaking in December 2022.

In monthly terms, Holiday travel and accommodation prices rose 7.2% in response to demand for domestic accommodation over the Easter and school holiday period.

Data downloads

Time Series Spreadsheets

Data files

Create your own tables and visualisations with Data Explorer

Caution: Data in Data Explorer is currently released after the 11:30am release on the ABS website. Please check the reference period when using Data Explorer.

Data explorer for the monthly CPI indicator.

For information on Data Explorer and how it works, see the Data Explorer user guide.

Detailed monthly data

Monthly Expenditure class data

Appendix

Annual weight update

About the monthly CPI indicator

What is the monthly CPI Indicator?

Introducing monthly indicators of underlying inflation

Articles

Measuring Rents in the CPI 

Using price indexes

Price indexes published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) provide summary measures of the movements in various categories of prices over time. They are published primarily for use in Government economic analysis. 

Consistent with existing policy, the ABS does not comment on the use (or otherwise) of the price indexes we publish. However, it should be noted that the monthly CPI indicator may be routinely subject to revision, in contrast to the quarterly CPI which is only revised in exceptional circumstances.

Use of Price Indexes in Contracts sets out a range of issues that should be taken into account by parties considering including an Indexation Clause in a contract using an ABS published price index.

Frequently asked questions

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) specific to the monthly CPI indicator can be found in the Information paper: Introducing a monthly CPI indicator for Australia FAQs 

In addition, the Frequently Asked Questions page has answers to a number of common questions to do with price indexes and the quarterly Consumer Price Index in particular.

Back to top of the page