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Monthly Consumer Price Index Indicator

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

Reference period
September 2022
Released
26/10/2022

Key statistics

  • The monthly CPI indicator rose 7.3% in the twelve months to September.
  • The most significant price rises were Housing (+10.3%), Food and non-alcoholic beverages (+9.6%) and Transport (+6.8%).

What's new this month

This is the first release of a monthly CPI indicator. The indicator provides monthly insights into CPI inflation. Further details on the monthly CPI indicator are provided in Introducing a monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) indicator for Australia.

The quarterly CPI is Australia’s key measure of inflation. It is different to the monthly CPI indicator, the quarterly CPI is available at Consumer Price Index, Australia. It should be noted that in contrast to the quarterly CPI which is only revised in exceptional circumstances, the monthly CPI indicator may be routinely subject to revision. 

Measuring Rents in the CPI

New data source

  • As outlined in the ABS’ information paper Introducing a monthly CPI indicator for Australia, from July 2022 the ABS has incorporated a new data source to measure the Rents series in the monthly CPI indicator and the quarterly CPI.
  •  The Rents series prior to July 2022 was measured on a quarterly basis using a survey of approximately 4,000 rental properties collected directly from real estate agents. 
  • The new dataset obtained by the ABS is updated monthly and includes approximately 480,000 rental properties that are used to produce the CPI Rents series across all capital cities. 

Further information on how CPI measures the Rents series can be found in the articles.

Main features

Weighted average of eight capital cities - annual
 Jul 2021 to Jul 2022 % changeAug 2021 to Aug 2022 % changeSept 2021 to Sept 2022 % change
All groups CPI7.06.97.3
Food and non-alcoholic beverages7.79.59.6
     Meat & seafood7.17.17.6
     Fruit & vegetables14.919.017.4
Alcohol and tobacco2.94.14.6
     Alcohol1.93.43.9
     Tobacco4.45.15.6
Clothing and footwear4.34.57.1
Housing9.79.510.3
     Rents2.02.42.9
     New dwelling purchases by owner-occupiers21.720.520.0
Furnishings, household equipment and services7.57.87.7
Health2.42.42.8
Transport12.48.56.8
     Automotive fuel29.215.010.1
Communications0.91.92.0
Recreation and culture5.84.15.3
     Holiday travel and accommodation13.37.912.6
Education4.64.64.5
Insurance and financial services3.73.74.2
CPI analytical series   
       Seasonally adjusted7.06.97.3
       Trimmed mean4.95.25.4
All groups CPI excluding volatile items*6.06.26.8

 

*Volatile items are Fruit and vegetables and Automotive fuel

Monthly Overview

Housing group driving annual inflation

Price rises for New dwellings was the main contributor to the increase in Housing. Ongoing labour and material shortages have seen record price rises in new dwelling construction, however, the annual movement eased slightly from 21.7% in July to 20.0% in September.

Rent price increases in recent months have reached a new high of 2.9% in the 12 months to September, which reflects historically low vacancy rates in most capital cities.

Adding to the annual increase for Housing of 10.3% in September was a rise in electricity and gas prices.

Groceries continue to rise

Over the twelve months the Food and non-alcoholic beverages group rose 9.6% in September. The increases are driven by Fruit and vegetables (+17.4%) and Meat and seafoods (+7.6%), due to flooding in key growing areas and higher input costs for freight and fertilizer.

Automotive fuel prices ease in recent months

Over the twelve months to September the Transport group rose 6.8%. The increase was driven by Automotive fuel, with an annual rise of 10.1% in September. Falls in the global price of oil has seen fuel prices ease in recent months since the annual increase of 43.2% in June.

Data downloads

TABLE 1. Monthly CPI Indicator: All groups, Groups and select Expenditure classes

Analytical series Australia, Index Numbers and Percentage Change from Corresponding Month of Previous Year, Weighted Average of Eight Capital Cities

TABLE 2. Monthly CPI Indicator: Select Groups, select Expenditure classes and Analytical series

Analytical series, Australia, Percentage Change from previous period, Weighted Average of Eight Capital Cities

Please note, the weighted median will not be published for the monthly CPI indicator.

What is the monthly CPI Indicator?

What's price updated - monthly breakdown

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.

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