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CEP News) Sydney - Australia's All Groups CPI fell -0.3% in the fourth quarter, compared with expectations for a 0.4% drop and a 1.2% rise in the third quarter, resulting in a total rise of 3.7% through the year. The quarterly fall is the largest since the September quarter 1997.
The Reserve Bank of Australia's Consumer Price Measures recorded a trimmed mean of 0.6 percentage change, with a weighted median of 0.9% for the December quarter 2008. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the most significant contributors to the fall in the All Groups CPI 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 All Groups CPI movement, compared to a rise of 0.16 index points in the previous September quarter. The most significant offsetting price increases were for rents (+1.8%), fruit (+8.0%), tobacco (+1.7%) and take away & fast foods (+1.5%). Within the non-tradables, the services component rose 0.5%, mainly due to rents, domestic holiday travel and accommodation along with other financial services. The only significant offset in this component was provided by deposit and loan facilities. The non-tradable goods component rose 0.8%, mainly due to price increases for take away & fast food and beer. Over the twelve months to the December quarter, non-tradables rose 5.4% and tradables rose 1.2%. This compares with rises of 6.1% and 3.4% respectively for these components through the year to the September quarter 2008. The main drivers in non-tradables were deposit & loan facilities, rents and house purchases. Overseas holiday travel, tobacco and spirits were the main contributors to the rise in tradables, with the decrease in automotive fuel offering a partial offset At the All Groups level, the CPI fell in all Australian capital cities this quarter, Melbourne falling the most with a 0.5% decrease. All other capital cities showed decreases in the range of 0.2% to 0.4%. The larger decrease in Melbourne was mainly due to a smaller increase in housing process and a bigger decrease in health costs than in other cities. By Tim Stackpool,
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