Staple foods rise the most in latest ABS CPI data with dairy topping the increases at almost 11 per cent

The cost of basic staple foods such as bread and milk has risen between 9.6-10.9 per cent in the past 12 months with dairy products topping the Consumer Price Indicator.

The monthly CPI released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics for October highlighted that dairy continued to top the price gains at 10.9 per cent, followed by bread and cereals at 9.6 per cent.

“On an annual basis, comparing CPI indexes from 2022 to 2023, all categories are still exhibiting an inflationary trend,” Mr Dalgleish said.

While dairy prices increased almost 11 per cent for the year they rose by 0.66 per cent over the month.

He said the CPI revealed that “deflationary pressures still persist” for fruit and vegetables with gains of just 0.5 per cent recorded.

“However we can see that fruit and vegetable prices eased over October by a marginal 0.08 per cent,” he said.

Alcohol prices remained steady, with no change in prices recorded during the month, although annually it had risen 6.6 per cent.

Meat and seafood had the second-lowest inflationary gains at an increase of 2.8 per cent year-on-year, with a small 0.08 per cent gain for the month, while bread and cereals increased by 0.15 per cent for the month.