Holiday in the sun
The chart below shows that most of the damage to inflation this month was done from one source, holidays (a subcomponent of the recreation series), and with December being peak holiday time in Australia and overseas visitors making the journey to see family and friends after, in many cases, long waits, it is perhaps not completely surprising to see some price pressure here. In December 2021, holiday prices rose 10.8% from the previous month. In December 2022, they rose a staggering 27% MoM, which is almost double the highest monthly increase in recent history.
Last month, food prices were the big shock to the data, driven higher by poor weather and flooding. The December weather wasn’t particularly good either, and food prices, especially fresh fruit and vegetables, were up another 3% from the previous month, though the impact of the food and…
Read the full article originally published at news.google.com.