The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.5 per cent in the December quarter 2018, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures. This follows a rise of 0.4 per cent in the September quarter.
The most significant rises in the December quarter are tobacco (+9.4 per cent), domestic holiday travel and accommodation (+6.2 per cent), fruit (+5.0 per cent), new dwellings purchased by owner-occupiers (+0.4 per cent) and furniture (+1.8 per cent). The rise is partially offset by falls in automotive fuel (-2.5 per cent), audio visual and computing equipment (-3.3 per cent), wine (-1.9 per cent) and telecommunications equipment and services (-1.5 per cent).
While automotive fuel rose 3.3 per cent in October, falls in November and December of 10.8 per cent and 5.0 per cent respectively resulted in a decrease across the quarter of 2.5 per cent.
The CPI rose 1.8 per cent through the year to the December quarter 2018, after increasing 1.9 per cent through the year to the September quarter.
ABS Chief Economist, Bruce Hockman said: "Annual growth in the CPI remains below 2 per cent in the December quarter 2018, with annual growth in tradables inflation of just 0.6 per cent, while non-tradables inflation rose 2.4 per cent. Over the past four years, annual growth in the CPI has only risen above 2 per cent in two of the past 16 quarters."
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This issue includes the introduction of updated weighting patterns using 2016-17 Household Final Consumption Expenditure data available from the Australian System of National Accounts (cat. no. 5204.0). For more details of these changes and the updated weighting patterns, refer to Information Paper: Introduction of the Consumer Price Index Weight Update, 2018 (cat. no. 6470.0.55.002).