In the latest release from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the Consumer Price Index (CPI) fell 1.9 per cent in the June 2020 quarter, the largest quarterly fall in the history of the CPI.

The CPI is a measure of pure price change and reflects the cost of purchasing an identical basket of goods and services against the previous quarter’s. The June quarter fall was mainly the result of free child care (-95.0 per cent), a fall in pre-school and primary education (-16.2 per cent), and a significant fall in the price of automotive fuel (-19.3 per cent).

However, some CPI components rose as a result of increased spending, including cleaning and maintenance products (+6.2 per cent) and non-durable household products such as toilet paper (+4.5 per cent), furniture (+3.8 per cent), major household appliances (+3.0 per cent) and audio, visual and computing equipment (+1.8 per cent).

For the June 2020 quarter, the annual inflation rate experienced a 0.3 per cent decrease.