MEDIA RELEASE
26 October 2011	Embargo: 11.30 am (Canberra time)	131/2011

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.6% in the September quarter 2011, compared with a rise of 0.9% in the June quarter 2011.

The most significant price rises in the September quarter 2011 were for electricity (+7.8%), international holiday travel and accommodation (+5.1%), rents (+1.2%), water and sewerage (+8.6%) and property rates and charges (+5.2%). The most significant offsetting price falls were for pharmaceutical products (–5.0%), audio, visual and computing equipment (–3.3%), automotive fuel (–1.4%), vegetables (–2.5%), motor vehicles (–1.0%) and fruit (–1.2%).

The CPI rose 3.5% from the September quarter 2010 to the September quarter 2011, compared with a rise of 3.6% from the June quarter 2010 to the June quarter 2011.

Further information is available in Consumer Price Index, Australia (cat. no. 6401.0).

The September quarter 2011 issue of the Australian Consumer Price Index incorporates the main outcomes from the recent major review of the CPI. The CPI has been reviewed 16 times since its introduction in 1960. These reviews ensure that the CPI continues to be a comprehensive and reliable measure of price inflation for Australia. The changes include;

• new household expenditure weights derived from the 2009–10 Household Expenditure Survey (HES) and other data sources;
• the indirectly measured component of the deposit and loan facilities index (i.e. Financial Intermediation Services Indirectly Measured (FISIM)) is now removed from the headline CPI;
• the deposit and loan facilities index comprises direct fees and charges only and has been renamed 'Deposit and loan facilities (direct charges)';
• the CPI commodity classification (CPICC) used to categorise the goods and services in the CPI has been updated to ensure it reflects contemporary wording and groupings. To enable greater international comparability, the classification has been aligned with the United Nations Classification of Individual Consumption according to Purpose (COICOP) where possible.
• an additional number of analytical measures of inflation are now included:
  • All Groups CPI, seasonally adjusted, weighted average of eight capital cities;
  • Expenditure class level price indexes, seasonally adjusted, weighted average of eight capital cities;
  • All Groups CPI including deposit and loan facilities (indirect charges); and
  • All Groups CPI excluding food and energy.
• revised analytical trimmed mean and weighted median measures of inflation using a new 16th series seasonal adjustment method. A detailed explanation of the impact of moving to this method was outlined in the Information Paper: Seasonal Adjustment of Consumer Price Indexes, 2011 (cat. no. 6401.0.55.003).

Further information about these changes is contained in the Information Paper: Introduction of the 16th Series Australian Consumer Price Index, 2011 (cat. no. 6470.0)