6401.0 - Consumer Price Index, Australia, Dec 2008 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 28/01/2009   
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DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

Sep Qtr 2008 to Dec Qtr 2008
Dec Qtr 2007 to Dec Qtr 2008
Weighted average of eight capital cities
% change
% change

Food
2.0
5.6
Alcohol and tobacco
1.4
5.8
Clothing and footwear
0.4
0.2
Housing
0.7
6.5
Household contents and services
0.3
0.4
Health
-1.2
4.9
Transportation
-6.9
-1.2
Communication
0.4
0.5
Recreation
0.5
1.3
Education
0.0
4.8
Financial and insurance services
-0.3
7.0
All groups
-0.3
3.7
All groups excluding Housing and Financial and insurance services
-0.7
2.4


All Groups, Quarterly change
Graph: All Groups, Quarterly change

Contribution to quarterly change, December quarter 2008
Graph: Contribution to quarterly change, December quarter 2008—December Quarter 2008




DECEMBER KEY POINTS


THE ALL GROUPS CPI
  • fell 0.3% in the December quarter 2008, compared with a rise of 1.2% in the September quarter. This is the largest quarterly fall since September quarter 1997.
  • rose 3.7% through the year to December quarter 2008, compared to an annual rise of 5.0% to September quarter 2008.


OVERVIEW OF CPI MOVEMENTS
  • The most significant price falls this quarter were for automotive fuel (-18.2%), motor vehicles (-2.4%), deposit and loan facilities (-1.9%) and pharmaceuticals (-4.7%).
  • The contribution of automotive fuel fell 1.47 index points, providing a negative impact on the December quarter 2008 CPI movement, compared to a rise of 0.16 index points in the September quarter 2008.
  • The most significant offsetting price increases were for rents (+1.8%), fruit (+8.0%), tobacco (+1.7%) and take away and fast foods (+1.5%).


NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER) Release Date
March 2009 22 April 2009
June 2009 22 July 2009
September 2009 28 October 2009
December 2009 27 January 2010



ROUNDING

Any discrepancies between totals and sums of components in this publication are due to rounding.


LINKS TO OTHER PARTS OF THIS RELEASE ON THE WEBSITE

To access the 'Main Contributors to Change' data (on the website) use the link ' Main Contributors to Change' as shown below.

To access the 'Capital Cities Comparison' data (on the website) use the link 'Capital Cities Comparison' as shown below.

The standard way to access links to other parts of this or any release on the website is by selecting the required link from the links list in the box at the top left hand side of the 'Summary' page.

Diagram: Links to Other Parts of This Release on the Website


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Lee Taylor on Canberra (02) 6252 6251.