The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has just released Producer Price Index (PPI) data for the March quarter, which has registered a 0.3% quarterly increase in final (stage 3) prices and an increase of only 1.6% over the year:
The 0.3% increase in final (stage 3) prices was driven primarily by increases in the prices received for building construction (+0.8%), other agriculture (+6.1%) and petroleum refining and petroleum fuel manufacturing (+4.2%), partly offset by falls in the prices received for pharmaceutical and medicinal product manufacturing (-4.8%).
The below chart shows the quarterly change in final PPI by component since 2005:
And below is a time-series of final PPI dating back to the beginning of the series. Note the huge fall in imported costs reflecting the appreciation of the Australian dollar:
The result confirms the current lack of inflationary pressures across the Australian economy. Although the situation could change in the event that the Australian dollar depreciated sharply, pushing-up imported inflation.
