Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government knows households are under real cost of living pressure.
“Inflation is a global challenge,” he said on Wednesday. “It is something the whole world is grappling with and it is something that the government is very conscious of,and we will be conscious of in the lead-up to the budget.”
ABS head of price statistics Michelle Marquardt said that employee households were feeling more pressure due to increases in mortgage interest rates.
“Mortgage interest charges for employee households rose 26.6 per cent over the quarter,and 61.3 per cent over the year,with banks passing on the Reserve Bank of Australia’s cash rate rises to interest rates for both variable and new fixed rate home loans,” she said.
The Reserve Bank lifted official interest rates at eight consecutive board meetings last year,taking it from a record low 0.1 per cent in May to 3.1 per cent just before Christmas. With inflation at a 32-year high,the board isexpected to raise the cash rate again next week by a quarter percentage point to 3.35 per cent.
During thecost of living inquiry hearing on Wednesday,the Reserve Bank’s head of economic analysis Dr Marion Kohler said people have different spending patterns,so cost of living pressures can affect households in varied ways.