Australian Bureau Of Statistics

CPI Rose 0.5 % In The December Quarter 2018

Victor P Taffa

Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.5 % in the December quarter 2018, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures.

“Annual growth in the CPI remains below 2 % in the December quarter 2018, with annual growth in tradables inflation of just 0.6 %, while non-tradables inflation rose 2.4 %. Over the past 4 years, annual growth in the CPI has only risen above 2 % in 2 of the past 16 quarters.” ABS Chief Economist, Bruce Hockman said.

This follows a rise of 0.4 % in the September quarter.

Most significant rises in the December quarter are:

• Tobacco (+9.4 %),
• Domestic holiday travel and accommodation (+6.2 %),
• Fruit (+5.0 %),
• New dwellings purchased by owner-occupiers (+0.4 %),
• Furniture (+1.8 %).

Rise is partially offset by falls in:

• Automotive fuel (-2.5 %),
• Audio visual and computing equipment (-3.3 %),
• Wine (-1.9 %),
• Telecommunications equipment and services (-1.5 %).

While automotive fuel rose 3.3 % in October, falls in November and December of 10.8 % and 5.0 % respectively resulted in a decrease across the quarter of 2.5 %.

CPI rose 1.8 % through the year to the December quarter 2018, after increasing 1.9 % through the year to the September quarter.