The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released Producer Price Index (PPI) data for the March quarter, which registered a 0.2% quarterly Decline in final (stage 3) prices and an increase of only 1.2% over the year:
The 0.2% decrease in final (stage 3) prices was driven primarily by decreases in the prices received for petroleum refining and petroleum fuel manufacturing (-16.2%), other agriculture (-6.5%) and pharmaceutical and medicinal product manufacturing (-3.0%), partly offset by rises in the prices received for motor vehicle and motor vehicle part manufacturing (+1.4%), newspaper, periodical, book and directory publishing (+4.9%) and building construction (+0.2%).