Consumers Price Index: June 2015 quarter

Seasonally adjusted CPI rise of 0.3 percent in the quarter

This quarter, we have introduced seasonal adjustment into the food price index and the CPI. Seasonal adjustment aims to eliminate the impact of regular seasonal events (such as annual cycles in fruit and vegetable production) on time series. Seasonal patterns can obscure the underlying behaviour of the series.

The seasonally adjusted CPI rose 0.3 percent in the June 2015 quarter, following a fall of 0.3 percent in the March quarter.

After seasonal adjustment, vegetable prices fell 3.7 percent compared with a rise of 4.8 percent for the actual series. Electricity prices, which usually rise in a June quarter, fell 1.6 percent after being seasonally adjusted compared with a rise of 0.6 percent for the actual series. This indicates the actual price rise for electricity was lower than usual for this time of year.

Field prices now collected electronically

The way we collect prices for the CPI changed in February. We introduced handheld tablets for field interviewers to price and submit fresh fruit and vegetable and fuel data electronically. Up to now, we've relied on traditional pen and paper methods, coupled with courier mail to receive and send work.

The new approach allows field interviewers to capture and send data back to the office in real time, leading to smarter, faster, and more efficient data collection and processing.

Electronic collection went live in February for fresh fruit and vegetables and for fuel. In April we added other food items and non-food items priced monthly, followed in May by other items in the CPI basket collected from retail outlets like department stores and appliance stores. Our phased approach managed the risks to key statistics from rolling out new technology.

Following the implementation this quarter, all prices from shops in the June 2015 quarter publication were collected electronically.