Key cost-of-living policies help drive moderation in monthly inflation

Today’s Monthly Consumer Price Index Indicator shows inflation moderated to 4.9 per cent in the 12 months to October, down from 5.6 per cent in September.

This is a substantial moderation and much better than the market expected.

Monthly inflation is much lower than the 6.1 per cent we inherited at the time of the election last year.

Inflation is still too high and it will remain higher than we’d like for longer than we’d like.

These monthly numbers jump around a fair bit which makes the quarterly figures more reliable, but the substantial moderation we see in these new inflation figures is still very welcome news.

Our economic plan is carefully calibrated to help ease inflation in our economy and ease pressure on Australians, and today’s figures show our policies are taking some of the edge off the cost of living and putting downward pressure on inflation.

In today’s statement, the Australian Bureau of Statistics confirmed that some of the Albanese Labor Government’s key cost-of-living polices are playing a central role in moderating monthly inflation.

The ABS said that without the Albanese Labor Government’s energy rebates which the Liberals and Nationals voted against, electricity prices would have increased by 18.8 per cent since June 2023 – more than 10 percentage points higher than today’s outcome of 8.4 per cent.

Without the largest increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance in 30 years, the ABS said rent would have gone up 8.3 per cent in the year to October, not 6.6 per cent.

These are encouraging results, but we know Australians are still under the pump which is why our focus remains rolling out billions of dollars in assistance, carefully calibrated to ease the cost of living and address inflation.

While the quarterly CPI results remain the key inflation indicator, today’s data confirms that we have the right economic plan to steer the economy through these difficult times, stare down the inflation challenge and deliver a better future for more Australians.