In the December 2020 quarter, all five living cost indexes rose:
Tobacco was the main contributor for three of the five population sub-groups due to the annual excise tax increase of 12.5% and the bi-annual excise tax increase based on Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings (AWOTE) indexation, both applied on 1 September 2020.
This was followed by domestic holiday travel and accommodation increasing across all population sub-groups following the re-opening of state and territory borders and commencement of the peak summer holiday period.
Alcohol and tobacco
The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
