Clothing, fuel prices dip as Australia's CPI rises by 0.8%

Annual inflation for goods decreased to 5.8 per cent, from 7.6 per cent in March. Automotive fuel prices fell by 3.6 per cent in the year to the June quarter. Data for clothing and footwear reflected a 0.6 per cent change from the March to June quarter 2023, and a 0.3 per cent change from June 2022 to June 2023, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said in a press release.

Notably, underlying inflation measures, which reduce the impact of temporary or irregular price changes, reported an annual trimmed mean inflation of 5.9 per cent, down from 6.6 per cent in the March quarter.

Michelle Marquardt, ABS head of prices statistics, said “CPI inflation slowed in the June quarter, with the quarterly rise being the lowest since September 2021. While prices continued to rise for most goods and services, there were some offsetting price falls this quarter including for domestic holiday travel and accommodation and automotive fuel.

“June quarter’s annual increase of 6.0 per cent is lower than the 7.0 per cent annual rise in the March 2023 quarter. This marks the second consecutive quarter of lower annual inflation, also known as ‘disinflation’, from the peak of 7.8 per cent in the December 2022 quarter.”

ALCHEMPro News Desk (NB)