Australia inflation rate (CPI)
Australian Bureau of Statistics Consumer Price Index, All groups, percentage change from the corresponding month of the previous year (headline inflation).
| Current value | 4 percent |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2026-05-01 |
| In force until | 2026-05-31 |
| Official source | Australian Bureau of Statistics, Consumer Price Index, Australia, May 2026 (released 24 June 2026, 11:30am AEST); media release 'CPI rose 4.0% in the year to May 2026' |
| Last verified | 2026-07-20 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
All groups CPI rose 4.0% in the twelve months to May 2026, down from 4.2% in the year to April 2026. In the month, the CPI FELL 0.7% in original terms and 0.1% in seasonally adjusted terms. The trimmed mean (the RBA's preferred underlying measure) rose to 3.6% from 3.4%, i.e. underlying inflation moved the OTHER WAY to headline in May - relevant context for the 4.35% cash rate. Largest annual contributor was Housing at 6.5%, within which electricity was up 21.1% as earlier Commonwealth and State electricity rebates unwound; Food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 3.3% (meals out and takeaway +4.0%) and Transport rose 3.3% (down from 6.6% in April as automotive fuel fell 11.9% in the month). FREQUENCY - THE HEADLINE IS NOW MONTHLY, NOT QUARTERLY: the ABS has completed its transition to a complete monthly CPI. The first complete Monthly CPI was published on 26 November 2025 for the OCTOBER 2025 reference month, and the September quarter 2025 was the last quarterly headline CPI. Annual movements for reference periods before that transition are quarter-on-corresponding-quarter, while from October 2025 they are month-on-corresponding-month, so the series is not strictly continuous across that join. The ABS continues to compile quarterly aggregates (the average of the three relevant monthly CPIs) and appends them to the quarterly tables in the December, March, June and September monthly publications; legacy quarterly series are to be maintained for at least 18 months. Australia's headline CPI is NOT seasonally adjusted; a seasonally adjusted monthly movement is published alongside. The RBA's inflation target is 2-3% on average over time, so 4.0% is materially above target. The catalogue number was not displayed on the release page and is deliberately not asserted here. Next release: June 2026 CPI, due late July 2026 - this value is one publication cycle from being superseded. ACCESS QUIRK: abs.gov.au serves this release as a JavaScript-assisted page; figures were read from the rendered official release and the official media release via a plain-text rendering proxy.
Earlier values
| From | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-12-01 | 3.8 | Australian Bureau of Statistics, Consumer Price Index, Austr |
| 2026-01-01 | 3.8 | Australian Bureau of Statistics, Consumer Price Index, Austr |
| 2026-02-01 | 3.7 | Australian Bureau of Statistics, Consumer Price Index, Austr |
| 2026-03-01 | 4.6 | Australian Bureau of Statistics, Consumer Price Index, Austr |
| 2026-04-01 | 4.2 | Australian Bureau of Statistics, Consumer Price Index, Austr |
Get it programmatically
curl https://ausref.dev/v1/au/cpi
# $0.001 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://ausref.dev/v1/au/cpi/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://ausref.dev/provenance/au/cpiOther Australia series: policy interest rate · VAT rate · minimum wage · public holidays · corporate tax rate · income tax rates