Dude, where’s
my inflation?

Average yearly change while each prime minister was in office, from the last quarter before they took office to the last full quarter before they left. Prime ministers have limited control over most prices: global energy and commodity prices, interest rates set by the independent Reserve Bank, and policies from earlier governments all play a part.

Data

• ABS Consumer Price Index, Table 18: quarterly price indexes for 87 spending categories, weighted average of the eight capital cities, to the June quarter 2026.
• ABS Selected Living Cost Indexes, Tables 1 to 3: cost of living for employee, age pensioner, self-funded retiree and other government payment households, and the mortgage interest charges index.
• ABS Wage Price Index, Table 1: total hourly rates of pay excluding bonuses, all sectors.

The price changes chart

Each line is the ABS index for that category divided by its value in the start quarter. Nothing is estimated. The figures measure what households pay after subsidies and rebates, are adjusted for quality (a TV's fall is the price of equivalent quality), and cover the capital cities only. New dwellings exclude land.

The personal inflation calculator

1. Your starting point is the official ABS living cost index for your main source of income. If you skip that question, it's the CPI.
2. Your other answers raise or lower the weight on the categories they affect (for example, renting raises rent and removes council rates). The weights start from the ABS's current CPI spending weights.
3. We apply the change those answers make to the ABS starting index, so a household that answers nothing matches the official figure exactly.
4. If you have a mortgage, we work out your other costs as for an owner without a loan, then add mortgage interest using the ABS mortgage interest index and the share of spending implied by your repayments.
5. The figure a year is the steady yearly rise that adds up to your total rise over the period (a compound rate). We do the same for official inflation and average pay.
6. We compare that yearly figure with the Reserve Bank's 2 to 3% inflation target, using the rounded number you see. The Reserve Bank aims for official inflation to average 2 to 3% over time. It isn't a target for any one household, so we show yours next to it for context only. About the target.

What's estimated

• How much each answer changes a category's weight. These are our estimates of a typical household of that kind, not ABS figures.
• Mortgage interest as about three-quarters of repayments, with take-home pay used as a guide to spending.
• That your interest costs moved in line with the ABS mortgage interest index, which reflects both interest rates and average loan sizes. If your loan was fixed or much smaller, your figure will differ.

How sensitive the results are

We tested every household preset with three different ways of combining categories and with each estimate above made 50% weaker and 50% stronger.

That's why the calculator starts from 2010. The chart above still goes back to 2000, because it uses only the ABS figures.

Limits

• Results are for a typical household of your type, not your exact spending.
• The wages comparison uses the Wage Price Index, which tracks pay for the same job and leaves out promotions and job changes. It is before tax.
• Policy markers are placed where a policy's effect first shows in the ABS data. Other forces, such as wholesale energy prices, also moved these prices.
• This is general information only, not financial advice.