The TD Securities/Melbourne Institute Inflation Gauge for February has come in at zero and is running at a paltry 1.3% year on year, down from 1.5% in January.
COMMSEC wraps it up:
Tradable good prices fell by 0.7 cent over the year to February, but the annual growth rate of non-tradable
inflation lifted from 2.5 per cent to 2.8 per cent.
The underlying rate (trimmed mean) rose by 0.2 per cent in February after a 0.3 per cent gain in January. The
annual rate rose from 2.3 per cent to 2.7 per cent.
Excluding volatile items like petrol and fruit & vegetables, the inflation gauge was flat in February after rising by
up 0.7 per cent in January. The annual rate of inflation eased from 2.4 per cent to 2.3 per cent.
TD Securities noted that: “Contributing to the overall change in February were price rises for automotive fuel
(+4.7 per cent), utilities (+0.8 per cent), and insurance (+1.1 per cent). These were offset by falls in fruit and
vegetables (-5.3 per cent), holiday travel and accommodation (-3.0 per cent) and newspapers, books and
stationery (-1.2 per cent).”
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
