Living Cost Indexes (LCIs) measures the price change of goods and services and its effect on living expenses of selected household types
The previously published SLCI data has been re-referenced. The September 2025 quarter serves as the link period where the index equals 100.00, and the indexes are now published to two decimal places. While the level of the indexes have changed due to re-referencing, the percentage movements of the index have not been revised.
More information on re-referencing is available in Re-referencing the quarterly Consumer Price Index.
All household types recorded increases in living costs this quarter, following smaller rises in the December 2025 quarter.
Age pensioner, Other government transfer recipient and Pensioner and beneficiary households recorded the largest rises in living costs this quarter. This is the largest quarterly rise for the Pensioner and beneficiary households since the series began in June 2007, and the largest quarterly rise since the September 2000 quarter for Age pensioner and Other government transfer recipients. Self-funded retiree households recorded the smallest increase across the LCIs.
Housing, Health and Transport were the main contributors to the rise in living costs across all household types this quarter. Rises in Food and non-alcoholic beverages and Insurance and financial services also contributed to increases in living costs. The main offsetting contributor was Recreation and culture.
All household types recorded rises in Housing driven by an increase in Electricity costs reflecting households using up the extended Commonwealth Energy Bill Relief Fund (EBRF) rebates.
Medical and hospital services rose across all household types, and Pharmaceutical products rose for most household types, as a result of the cyclical reduction in the proportion of households who qualify for subsidies under the Medicare Safety Net and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). The safety net thresholds for both the PBS and Medicare are reset on 1 January each year. Increases for Medical and hospital services and Pharmaceutical products are expected in the March quarter due to the resetting of the safety net thresholds.
Additionally, non-concession prices for PBS Pharmaceutical products were impacted by a reduction in the general (non-concession) patient co-payment on 1 January, which lowered out of pocket costs for selected households. This led to a smaller rise in Pharmaceutical products for Self-funded retiree households who pay a mix of concession and non-concession prices, and a fall for Employee households who pay non-concession prices.
Transport rose across all household types, driven by Automotive fuel. Automotive fuel prices increased mainly due to a large increase in March reflecting the impact of the conflict in the Middle East on fuel prices. The rise in March followed small falls in automotive fuel prices in January and February leading to a moderate rise for the March quarter of around 5.0% across the household types. For more information see A history of automotive fuel prices.
Living costs for Age pensioner, Other government transfer recipient and Pensioner and Beneficiary households rose 2.5% this quarter. Households represented by these indexes source their principal income from government payments.
These households recorded the largest increases in Housing costs this quarter, due to larger rises in Electricity, which makes up a higher proportion of expenditure for these household types.
Additionally, these household types saw a larger impact from the extended Commonwealth Energy Bill Relief Fund (EBRF) rebates being used up compared to other household types. These household types have relatively smaller electricity bill sizes, which means changes in rebates or prices have a proportionally bigger impact on their out-of-pocket electricity costs.
Government payment recipient households also saw the largest increases in Health. The cost of Pharmaceutical products and Medical and hospital services rose due to the cyclical reduction in the proportion of households who qualify for subsidies under the PBS and Medicare Safety Net, with the safety net thresholds for both resetting from 1 January each year.
Other government transfer recipients and Age pensioner households pay concession prices for Pharmaceutical products and recorded a larger rise from the safety net threshold resetting compared with non-concession households.
Living costs for Employee households, whose primary source of income is wages and salaries, rose 1.4% in the March 2026 quarter, up from a 0.2% rise in the previous quarter.
Mortgage interest charges makes up a higher proportion of expenditure for Employee households. Mortgage interest charges rose 1.5%, up from a fall of 2.8% in the December 2025 quarter.
All banks passed on interest rate rises in full to variable home loans following the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to increase the cash rate in February. However, most of the effects of the RBA’s cash rate hikes in both February and March 2026 will be seen in the June 2026 quarter due to the timing of the changes in the cash rate. The rise in mortgage interest charges this quarter was driven by higher mortgage debt levels.
Education also makes up a higher proportion of expenditure for Employee households. Education rose 3.2% reflecting annual fee increases for secondary and pre-school and primary education at the start of the school year, and annual CPI indexation being applied to university course fees at the start of the year for tertiary education.
Employee households recorded the smallest rise in Health this quarter. Employee households pay non-concession prices for PBS Pharmaceutical products which fell this quarter due to the reduction in the PBS general (non-concession) patient co-payment, lowering out of pocket costs for these households and offsetting the impact of the PBS safety net threshold reset.
Self-funded retiree households, whose primary source of income is superannuation or property income, rose 1.1% this quarter following a 0.7% rise in the December 2025 quarter.
Self-funded retiree households recorded the weakest rise in quarterly living costs of all the household types, primarily due to a fall in Holiday travel and accommodation. Holiday travel and accommodation makes up a higher proportion of expenditure for Self-funded retiree households than it does for other types of households. International holiday travel and accommodation prices fell this quarter due to lower demand following the peak December holiday period.
In the twelve months to the March 2026 quarter, all LCIs rose between 2.6% and 5.2%, compared to annual rises of between 2.3% and 4.2% to the December 2025 quarter.
Households whose main source of income is government payments recorded higher rises in annual living costs compared to Employee and Self-funded retiree households.
Housing, Food and non-alcoholic beverages and Recreation and culture were the main annual contributors across most of the household types.
Government payment recipient households recorded the largest annual rises in living costs this quarter, driven by larger annual rises in electricity costs. These households saw a relatively larger impact on their out-of-pocket costs from the extended Commonwealth EBRF and State Government electricity rebates being used up over the year compared to other household types.
Strong annual price rises for Rents and Tobacco also contributed to the annual rises for government payment recipient households. Rents and Tobacco make up a higher proportion of expenditure for most of these households. The annual rise in Rents reflects tight rental markets consistent with low vacancy rates.
Self-funded retiree households recorded an annual rise of 3.8%. Recreation and culture makes up a higher proportion of expenditure for Self-funded retiree households. Recreation and culture rose over the year driven by Domestic holiday travel and accommodation. Electricity, Rents and Tobacco, which all had strong annual price growth, make up a smaller proportion of expenditure for this household type, contributing to a lower annual rise compared to Government payment recipient households.
Employee households recorded the smallest annual rise (+2.6%) across all household types. Mortgage interest charges, which fell over the year, makes up a higher proportion of expenditure for this household type. Mortgage interest charges fell 6.3% in the 12 months to the March 2026 quarter.
For information on the weighting pattern for the SLCIs, please see Selected Living Cost Indexes, Australia methodology and the Annual weight update of the CPI and Living Cost Indexes, December 2024.
| Weighted average of eight capital cities | Pensioner and beneficiary LCI (%) | Employee LCI (%) | Age pensioner LCI (%) | Other government transfer recipient LCI (%) | Self-funded retiree LCI (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food and non-alcoholic beverages | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Alcohol and tobacco | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.5 |
| Clothing and footwear | 2.1 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 2.0 | 2.4 |
| Housing | 5.4 | 3.5 | 6.1 | 4.9 | 4.4 |
| Furnishings, household equipment and services | -0.2 | -0.2 | -0.2 | -0.2 | -0.3 |
| Health | 7.2 | 1.8 | 6.2 | 8.8 | 2.7 |
| Transport | 2.4 | 2.0 | 2.4 | 2.3 | 2.0 |
| Communication | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.1 |
| Recreation and culture | -0.8 | -1.3 | -1.3 | -0.3 | -2.3 |
| Education | 3.5 | 3.2 | 1.8 | 3.5 | 3.6 |
| Insurance and financial services | 1.9 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 2.0 | 2.1 |
| All groups | 2.5 | 1.4 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 1.1 |
For further analysis on commodity group annual contributors, please refer to the latest release of the Consumer Price Index.
Price indexes published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) provide summary measures of the movements in various categories of prices over time. They are published primarily for use in Government economic analysis. Price indexes are also often used in contracts by businesses and government to adjust payments and/or charges to take account of changes in categories of prices (Indexation Clauses).
Use of Price Indexes in Contracts that sets out a range of issues that should be taken into account by parties considering including an Indexation Clause in a contract using an ABS published price index.
The Frequently Asked Questions page that has answers to a number of common questions to do with price indexes and the Consumer Price Index, in particular.
This release previously used catalogue number 6467.0.