MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th July, 2020) Prices on goods and services in Australia have for the first time in over two decades grown negatively in yearly expression, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said in a press release on Wednesday.
As of June 2020, the annual inflation rate was negative 0.3 percent year-on-year, according to the press release.
"Since 1949, this was only the third time annual inflation has been negative. The previous times were in 1962 and 1997-98," ABS Chief Economist Bruce Hockman said, as quoted in the press release.
In quarterly expression, Australia's consumer price index � the measure of the average change in prices of goods and services over a given period � fell 1.9 percent, marking the largest quarterly fall in 72 years.
According to the ABS, the deflation was a result of the government's adjusted spending amid the coronavirus pandemic. This includes the provision of free child care, accounting for negative 95 percent growth, a dramatic fall in car fuel prices (negative 19.3 percent) and a fall in pre-school and Primary education (negative 16.2 percent).
At the same time, prices have increased across a select range of goods, including cleaning and maintenance products (6.2 percent growth) and other bib-durable household products, such as toilet paper (4.5 percent), furniture (3.8 percent), major household appliances (3 percent) and audio, visual and computer equipment (1.8 percent).
