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The Consumer Price Index grew by 3.5 per cent in the year to July, down from 3.8 per cent in June.
When we unpack a little bit what drove the headline CPI result, the Housing group was one of the key contributors. Housing grew by 5 per cent in the year of July, down from 6.8 per cent in June.
In terms of the other contributors, the Food and non-alcoholic beverages group rose by 3.2 per cent and the Recreation and culture group grew by 2.6 per cent.
Just to unpack that housing story a little; Housing grew by 5 per cent annually, the key driver of this was new dwellings.
New dwelling prices grew by 5.7 per cent annually, driven by builders passing on increased costs for materials and labour.
Rents was the second largest contributor to the housing group. Rents grew 3.6 per cent annually in July.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages grew 3.2 per cent annually. Food inflation was driven by Meals out and takeaway costs, which grew by 4.5 per cent annually.
To unpack the fuel story a little more; firstly, just noting Automotive fuel prices appear in our Transport group in the CPI, and the Transport group grew 1.6 per cent annually in July.
To dive a little deeper on Automotive fuel prices; Automotive fuel prices grew 7.5 per cent in the month of July, following several months of declines.
The key drivers of this monthly movement were higher world oil prices, and also the partial unwinding of the federal government's fuel excise relief measures in July.
Trimmed mean annual inflation was 3.6 per cent in July, unchanged from June.
When we see significant price movements, as we have in Automotive fuel prices over the past few months, it can be useful to look at a measure such as the Trimmed mean inflation. This gives you a real sense of underlying inflation in the trend sense, and that's a good way of abstracting from some of the bigger movements caused by these temporary shocks.