“Fruit and vegetable prices rose this quarter as unfavourable growing conditions drove higher prices for grapes, strawberries, blueberries, tomatoes and capsicums. This was the highest quarterly rise for fruit and vegetables since 2016,” Marquardt said.
Electricity prices increased by 2.1 per cent in the quarter to be 6 per cent up over the year. These have been affected by the federal government’s energy bill relief fund.
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Without that fund, the bureau estimates electricity prices would have climbed by 14.6 per cent over the past year.
Insurance prices continue to climb, but they are starting to slow down. The annual increase was 16.4 per cent in the year to March but fell to a still high 14 per cent in the year to June. The bureau said high reinsurance costs, natural disasters and claims costs continue to put upward pressure on premiums.
Across the capital cities, inflation is running fastest in Perth (4.6 per cent) and Adelaide (4.5 per cent). Prices have climbed by 3.8 per cent in Sydney and by 3.7 per cent in Melbourne over the past year.
Hobart has the lowest inflation rate in the country at just 2.7 per cent.
The Reserve Bank, which holds its two-day meeting on Monday and Tuesday, had forecast both the headline inflation and the trimmed measure to be at 3.8 per cent in the June quarter.
Before the figures, financial markets had put the chance of an interest rate rise next week at one in four.
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Source Agencies
