Living costs increasing across all Aussie households, says ABS

New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has once again shown a rise in living costs, this time across all household types.

Data released earlier today (Wednesday, 7 August) by the ABS shows that all household types recorded an increase in quarterly living costs in the June 2024 quarter.

Michelle Marquardt, ABS head of prices statistics, said: “Increases in living costs in the June 2024 quarter ranged from 1.2 per cent to 1.4 per cent, depending on the spending patterns of the different household types, compared to a rise of 1.0 per cent in the consumer price index.”

“This is the first time since December 2010 that increases in living costs for all household types were higher than the increase in the CPI.”

A significant difference between the living cost indexes and the CPI is that the living cost indexes include mortgage interest charges rather than the cost of building new dwellings. In this case, employee households, similar to the previous quarter results, were most impacted by rising mortgage interest charges.

“Mortgage interest charges rose 2.6 per cent in the June 2024 quarter driven by the continued rollover of some expired fixed rate mortgages to higher variable rate mortgages,” Marquardt said.

“Employee households recorded the largest annual rise in living costs of all household types with a rise of 6.2 per cent. However, this was down from 6.5 per cent in the previous quarter, and down from the peak of 9.6 per cent in the June 2023 quarter.”

Main contributors

The main contributors to these increases were insurance and financial services, including mortgage interest charges, and food and non-alcoholic beverages.

Individuals whose main source of income is government payments recorded the largest rise of all household types.

“Other government transfer recipient households were most impacted by higher rental prices reflecting a tight rental market,” Marquardt said.

The Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index (PBLCI) measures living costs for aged pensioners as well as other government transfer receipt households. The ABS data shows that the PBLCI rose 4.1 per cent over the year, compared to a rise of 3.8 per cent in the CPI.

“Age pensioner and other government transfer recipient households’ living costs include interest charges, which rose between 20 and 24 per cent for these household types annually. Insurance also makes up a larger proportion of spending for these households compared to the CPI.

“Insurance premiums rose over the year contributing to higher living costs for these households,” Marquardt said.