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Showing posts with the label Inflation

Prices of fresh produce may soar, but if you think farmers are rolling dough, think again

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Lettuce has crossed the $10 mark, milk prices are soaring by major supermarkets and strawberries are $6 a punnet. Almost everywhere you look, the prices of food and other agricultural goods are on the rise. You’d be forgiven for thinking this must be a great time for Australian farmers, preferably gazing out the window at the gentle rain. Not too. Rising price Understanding what drives the price of any commodity can be a confusing exercise at the best of times. The current situation is generally caused by a number of problems, the first of which relates to the nature of Australia’s growing season. Australian vegetables come from different parts of the country depending on the season. Currently the main supplier is Queensland. Earlier this year, several developing areas were hit by two floods in 11 weeks. Queensland’s Lockyer Valley flooded earlier this year destroying large vegetable crops. ( Provided: Lockyer Valley Regional Council ) Belinda Frentz is a herb grower...

The most soaring used car prices - A frustrated Aussie says it made him throw the car away

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More and more Aussies are selling their cars to help ease cost of living pressures, with prices for some used models booming. Since the start of the pandemic, used car prices have risen by a phenomenal 79 percent, and if you own an Audi RS7, Mercedes G, or Toyota Hilux, you could be sitting on a gold mine. The 2021 Hilux has increased in value an incredible 136 percent from $29,000 in June 2021 to $68,500 in June 2022. With Australian inflation now at 6.1 per cent – the highest in two decades – some find the key to financial stability could be in their garage. According to 2021 census data, 55.1 per cent of Australian households own two or more vehicles, and some of them are now abandoning their second car, while others are completely car-free. One of those who decided to sell his one-of-a-kind vehicle was Milli Ogden, who besides facing rising prices was also saving up for his wedding. Milli Ogden (pictured) is selling her car to help cope with rising living costs and...

Scary graphics reveal the full impact of Australia's cost of living crisis on grocery spending

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The reason your weekly grocery store is becoming so much more expensive has been revealed because the cost of living crisis continues to hit shoppers at the checkout. The weekly staple, which saw its biggest price increase in a year, was mentioned in the data behind this week’s announcement that inflation was at its highest level in two decades. Vegetables, fruit, breakfast cereals, breads, eggs, oil, butter and margarine all spiked in price last year according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Smile and hold on: The reason your weekly grocery store is getting so much more expensive has been revealed as the cost of living crisis continues to hit shoppers at checkout The opposite graph has depicted an alarming rise in the cost of basic foodstuffs, with vegetables, cereals and other household staples topping the list of sharp price increases. The ABS released its quarterly Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures – a key measure of inflation – on Wednes...

We struggle with inflation because we misread the pandemic

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So, the economy was running normally until the government suddenly ordered us to lock ourselves in. Obviously, this will involve a lot of people losing their jobs and a lot of businesses losing sales. This will be a government-ordered recession. Because it was ordered by the government, however, the government knew that they had an obligation to provide workers and businesses with income to offset their losses. Fearing a prolonged recession, the government spent a lot of money and the Reserve Bank cut the official interest rate to almost zero. Illustration Credit: Matt Davidson Get? These were government-ordered restrictions on the supply of goods and services, but the government responded as if it was just a standard recession where demand had fallen below the economy’s capacity to produce goods and services and needed a major push to get them back up and running. The unemployment rate jumped to 7.5 percent, but the nationwide lockdown was lifted after just a month or two. S...

What is inflation? Why is it so high? And what is the RBA's plan to bring it back down?

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If you’re the person in your household who usually goes grocery shopping or fills the car, you don’t need a statistician to tell you that prices are going up. Nonetheless, the latest official reading of rising consumer prices is out on Wednesday from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This is called the Consumer Price Index, or CPI. “The way to measure inflation in Australia is to look at the different categories that consumers use to spend their money,” explains AMP senior economist Diana Mousina. The numerator at ABS goes around all the capital cities and checks the latest prices for this “basket of goods,” with about 100,000 different individual prices collected every three months. The statisticians then calculated how much had changed since the last survey three months earlier. Each year, the ABS also checks what Australians typically spend the majority of their money on, and ‘weights’ the CPI accordingly, thus reflecting where the a...