The latest CPI data from the ABS today for June 2018 shows that the Index (CPI) rose 0.4 per cent in the June quarter 2018, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures. This follows a rise of 0.4 per cent in the March quarter 2018.
The most significant price rises this quarter are automotive fuel (+6.9 per cent), medical and hospital services (+3.1 per cent), and tobacco (+2.8 per cent). These rises are partially offset by falls in domestic holiday travel and accommodation (-2.7 per cent), motor vehicles (-2.0 per cent) and vegetables (-2.9 per cent).
In annual terms, transport rose 5.2%, and tobacco by 7.8%. The annual rate was 2.1%, having increased 1.9 per cent through the year to March quarter 2018. Most of this annual growth is due to strength in fuel, electricity and tobacco.
For the June quarter 2018, the All Groups annual percentage change of the Weighted Average of the Eight Capital Cities is +2.1 per cent. Sydney rose 2.1 per cent, Melbourne rose 2.5 per cent, Brisbane rose 1.7 per cent, Adelaide rose 2.7 per cent, Perth rose 1.1 per cent, Hobart rose 2.4 per cent, Darwin rose 1.2 per cent, and Canberra rose 2.8 per cent.
In fact, this is a weak result, the trimmed mean falls below the lower bounds of the RBA target at 1.9%. Yet in some categories households are reporting BIG rises in costs of living. Electricity, Fuel, Health Care costs are bearing down – and frankly the CPI does seem disconnected from the real life experience of many.
Costs are still outpacing income growth, for many households, so net, net they are going backwards, still.
