Lamb leap

Quarterly Food Inflation Update - June 2024

The June quarter 2024 consumer price indicator was released today by the ABS and it shows some strong inflationary trends re-emerging over the second quarter of 2024 for lamb, fruit and vegetables. The fruit category saw the largest price gains over the quarter with a 10.6% increase, followed by lamb on a 7.3% lift. The higher fruit pricing also dragged the combined fruit & vegetable category higher with a 6.3% price gain noted, which was despite the vegetable category lifting by just 3.3%. Meanwhile the coffee & tea category saw the strongest deflationary trend with a 1.1% drop in prices over Q2.

Looking at the CPI year on year is a different picture, with lamb prices on an annual basis still displaying strong deflationary pressures. The 2024 lamb CPI is currently sitting 9.1% under the annual lamb CPI for 2023. Beef was the other red meat category displaying annual price softening with prices 3.4% below last year’s levels. Cheaper lamb and beef has dragged the combined meat & seafood category lower too with that sitting at a 0.8% decline for the annual measure. Most other food/drink categories are displaying annual CPI increases between a 3.5% to 5.5% range from 2023 to 2024.