Australia recorded its lowest annual inflation rate since late 2021, despite a large quarterly rise.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Head of Prices Statistics Leigh Merrington said the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.9 percent in the March 2025 quarter and 2.4 percent annually.
“The March quarter increase of 0.9 percent follows two quarters in a row of 0.2 per cent rises,” Mr Merrington said.
“Annual inflation to the March 2025 quarter of 2.4 percent was unchanged from the December 2024 quarter.”
He said when prices for some items move by large amounts, measures of underlying inflation like the trimmed mean could give more insights into how inflation was trending.
“Trimmed mean annual inflation was 2.9 percent in the March quarter, down from 3.3 percent in the December quarter.
“This is the lowest annual trimmed mean inflation rate since the December 2021 quarter,” Mr Merrington said.
He said the main contributors to the quarterly CPI rise were Housing (+1.7 percent), Education (+5.2 percent) and Food and non-alcoholic beverages (+1.2 percent).
“The quarterly growth in Housing was driven by Electricity (+16.3 percent).
“The rise was driven by increases in electricity prices in Brisbane where most households have used up the $1,000 Queensland State Government electricity rebate resulting in higher out of pocket electricity costs.”
