Inflation Down Again Australia’s inflation rate has taken another tumble with new figures revealing it fell to 4.1% in the year to the December quarter.
It was at 5.4% in September. The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show consumer prices lifted just 0.6% in the last quarter of 2023, which was the smallest increase in almost four years.
ABS head of prices statistics, Michelle Marquardt, says the CPI increase in the December quarter, was smallest quarterly rise since the March 2021 quarter.
“While prices continued to rise for most goods and services, annual CPI inflation has fallen from a peak of 7.8% in December 2022, to 4.1% in December 2023,” she says.
The most significant contributors to the December quarter rise were Housing (+1.0%), Alcohol and tobacco (+2.8%), Insurance and financial services (+1.7%), and Food and non-alcoholic beverages (+0.5%).
Marquardt says higher labour and material costs contributed to price rises in the quarter for construction of new dwellings.
Rental prices rose 0.9% for the quarter, following a 2.2% rise in the September quarter. Marquardt says it was moderated by changes to Commonwealth Rent Assistance scheme. If that had not happened rental prices would have increased by 2.2% in the December 2023 quarter.
