Working Australians have experienced the highest yearly jump in the cost of living on record, according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Living Cost Indexes figures released today show all households saw increases in annual living costs in the March 2023 quarter.
Increases ranged from 7.1 to 9.6 per cent, all higher than the 7.0 per cent annual increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
“Living costs for employee households recorded the largest annual rise of all household types, at 9.6 per cent; the largest increase since this series started in 1999,” Michelle Marquardt, ABS head of prices statistics, said.
“The last time the CPI recorded an annual increase of 9.6 per cent was in 1986.”
The Living Cost Indexes include the impact of mortgage interest charges, but the CPI does not as it includes the cost of building a new dwelling instead, Marquardt added.
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“As a result, living costs for all household types rose more than the CPI,” she said.
“I want to assure you the board is very focused on understanding these pressures on family budgets,” RBA boss Philip Lowe said.
“(We) talk about them a lot at our meetings and we do take them into account in our decisions.”
A parliamentary committee passed on its verdict on the cost of living crisis today too, with an interim report confirming wages are not growing fast enough to keep up with inflation as the cost of energy, housing and groceries rise.
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