Eat your greens!
Monthly Food Inflation Update - August 2023
For the second consecutive month the Fruit & Vegetable category was the only monthly CPI indicator to show a price decline, according the recent release of Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) food inflation data. The Fruit & Vegetable indicator dropped by 1.3% during August 2023.
Price increases in the Dairy category abated and the monthly indicator showed no change from July to August. Meanwhile prices in the Meat & Seafood category increased by a meagre 0.6%, which is the same magnitude increase seen the month prior. Alcohol posted a 1.7% lift in prices during August. Meanwhile the Bread & Cereal category saw the highest inflationary pressures over August 2023, with an increase of 1.8% during the month.
Analysis of the annual change to the indicator shows that dairy continues to be the most inflationary food category with prices up by 10.4% from levels seen last year. The continued deflationary pressure on the Fruit & Vegetable category over August has seen the annual inflationary price change for this year sit at just 1.4% higher than the price levels seen in 2022. Compared to last year’s pricing the Bread & Cereal category is 8.8% higher, meanwhile Alcohol is up 6.6%. The Meat & Seafood category has seen the annual indicator rise by 2.8% so far during 2023.
