Australia - Consumer Price Index (CPI)

In Australia, Consumer Price Index (CPI) statistics are compiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The dataset presents the movements in retail prices of goods and services commonly purchased by metropolitan households. The goods and services are divided into groups: food; alcohol and tobacco; clothing and footwear; housing; household contents and services; health; transportation; communication; recreation; education; and financial and insurance services.

Quarterly

Active:

• Classification: Australian CPI Commodity Classification (CPICC)
• Measurement: Fixed-base index relative to financial year 2012 (Index FY 2012=100)
• Adjustment: Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
• Native frequency: Quarterly
• Start date: As early as 1948Q3
• Geo coverage:
  • Country
  • 8 GCCSA capital city metro areas (IAUS_M^^^)
• All concept-geo pairs exist: Yes

Predecessors:

• FY 1998=100, four concepts - 1998Q2 to 2012Q2 ("90")
• FY 1990=100 - 1972Q2 to 2011Q2 ("11")
• FY 1990=100, GCCSA only - 1948Q3 to 2012Q2 ("90")

Monthly

• Classification: CPICC
• Measurements:
  • Fixed-base index relative to September 2017 (Index Sep2017=100)
  • Percent change year-over-year (% Y/Y)
• Adjustments:
  • Seasonally adjusted (SA)
  • Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
• Native frequency: Monthly
• Start date: Uniformly 2017m9
• Geo coverage:
  • Country
  • Aggregate of eight capital cities (IAUS_CAP)
• All concept-geo pairs exist: Yes

The source writes:

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures quarterly changes in the price of a "basket" of goods and services which account for a high proportion of expenditure by the CPI population group (i.e. metropolitan households). This "basket" covers a wide range of goods and services, arranged in the following eleven groups:

• Food
• Alcohol and tobacco
• Clothing and footwear
• Housing
• Household contents and services
• Health
• Transportation
• Communication
• Recreation
• Education
• Financial and insurance services

The commodity classification used in the Australian CPI is a demand-based classification that is different from the international Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP). The Australian CPI Commodity Classification (CPICC) is based on the concept of household utility. It groups items together which are substitutable. It is conceptually different to the internationally accepted COICOP classification. For example, in the CPICC, restaurant meals are considered substitutes to eating at home and are covered by the “food” group whereas in COICOP they are considered a service and are grouped with other similar services under “Restaurants and Hotels.” At the higher level there is a broad correspondence between CPICC and COICOP.

Moody's Analytics supplements

For the all-items index, quarterly, for all eight metro areas, we construct seasonally adjusted counterparts using the X-13ARIMA-SEATS program.

Quarterly CPI original indexes are revised only in exceptional circumstances, such as to correct a significant error. Seasonal adjustment factors are calculated using the history of price changes up to the current quarter CPI and are revised each quarter.

The monthly CPI indicator may be routinely subject to revision. 

Further reading

At the source:

• Consumer Price Index, Australia, Dec 2008 (Jan 2009)
• Monthly Consumer Price Index Indicator methodology (Apr 2023)
• Underlying inflation measures: Explaining the trimmed mean and weighted median (Apr 2019)

At IMF (SDDS):

• Price index: Consumer prices (Mar 2023)

• 30 Jan 2023, Phillip Thorne - Properties » Predecessors.
• 13 Jun 2023, Phillip Thorne - Added monthly trimmed mean.
• 26 Jul 2023, Phillip Thorne - Changed from X-12 to X-13.