Living costs increased for all household types across Australia in the March 2025 quarter, according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), rising between 0.6% and 1.6%.
Key contributors to the rise included health, housing, food, and non-alcoholic beverages, with price hikes in pharmaceuticals, electricity, and fresh produce like avocadoes, mangoes, and tomatoes.
Households reliant on government payments, including age pensioners, experienced the sharpest rise in living costs, largely due to out-of-pocket health and electricity expenses.
In Brisbane, electricity bills increased after many households exhausted the $1000 state rebate, while in other states, costs rose due to delays in federal energy relief payments.
Employee households saw a 1.1% rise in costs, driven by higher mortgage interest charges and a 5.3% spike in education fees at the start of the school year.
Mortgage interest charges grew by 1.5% in the quarter, though slightly down from the previous quarter, as fixed-rate loans transitioned to higher variable rates.
The Reserve Bank’s February 2025 interest rate cut is expected to impact household expenses more visibly in the June quarter.
