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Australia's annual inflation rate reaches 4.3% in September 2026

Consumer prices in Australia were 4.3% higher in September 2026 than 12 months earlier, up from 4% in August.

Published 1 min read

  • 2026-084%
  • 2026-094.3%
Australia consumer price inflation (12-month change) · Australian Bureau of Statistics

Australia Consumer price inflation →

The headline figure

On average, the things Australian households buy cost more than they did a year ago. In September 2026, consumer prices were 4.3% higher than 12 months earlier.

Sources for this paragraph (1)

What the official figures show

The measure is consumer price inflation, expressed as a 12-month change in per cent. The September 2026 reading was 4.3%. The August 2026 reading was 4%.

Sources for this paragraph (2)

The difference between the two months is 0.3 percentage points. That is a change in the annual rate from one month to the next. It is not the amount prices rose within September alone.

Sources for this paragraph (1)

September against August

The annual rate rose from 4% in August to 4.3% in September. Both figures come from the same statistic, so they can be compared directly. The later value is higher, which means the gap between this year's prices and last year's prices widened over the month.

Sources for this paragraph (3)

What it means for people living in Australia

The 4.3% figure is an average across a broad basket of goods and services. Your own cost of living may have changed by more or less than that. It depends on what you spend your money on.

Sources for this paragraph (1)

The headline rate does not tell any household how much its own bills went up. It shows the general direction of prices: in September 2026, they were further above their year-earlier level than they were in August.

Sources for this paragraph (2)

What the data does not tell us

These figures show how much prices changed. They do not explain why. They also do not show which goods or services drove the September reading. The 0.3 percentage point move covers a single month. The data provided here cannot show whether it marks the start of a longer trend.

Sources for this paragraph (3)

Scenarios to watch

  • Scenario, not a forecast If price growth over the coming months runs faster than it did in the same months a year earlier, the annual rate would stay above 4.3% or climb further.
  • Scenario, not a forecast If monthly price rises are smaller than those recorded a year earlier, the annual rate would ease back towards or below the 4% seen in August.
  • Scenario, not a forecast If the two roughly match, the annual rate would stay close to its September level.

What to check next

  • The October 2026 consumer price inflation figure, to see whether the annual rate holds at 4.3%, rises or falls
  • The September 2026 breakdown by category, such as electricity, food and rent, to see which parts of the basket moved
  • Reserve Bank statements on how it reads the latest inflation figures

Verified data used in this report

IndicatorValuePeriodSourcesAccessed
F1Australia consumer price inflation (12-month change)4.3%2026-09Australian Bureau of Statistics
F2Australia consumer price inflation (12-month change)4%2026-08Australian Bureau of Statistics
F3Change from previous period (percentage points)0.3pp2026-09Australian Bureau of Statistics
C2Australia electricity price inflation (12-month change)13.2%2026-08Australian Bureau of Statistics
C3Australia food price inflation (12-month change)3%2026-08Australian Bureau of Statistics
C4Australia rent prices (CPI, 12-month change)3.6%2026-08Australian Bureau of Statistics
C5Australia unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted)4.72%2026-09Australian Bureau of Statistics
C6Australia GDP growth (annual %)1.35%2025World Bank
C7Australia Unemployment, total (% of labour force, ILO modelled estimate)4.09%2025World Bank
C8Australia Fertility rate, total (births per woman)1.482024World Bank
C9Australia Population aged 65 and above (% of total population)18.09%2025World Bank
C10Australia Population growth (annual %)1.53%2025World Bank

Sources

  • Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (CC BY 4.0) — license
  • Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0) — license

How this report was checked

  • Data: the newest reference period cited is 2026-09.
  • Figures were collected from the source on
  • Written by an AI model (claude-opus-5-5) using only the official figures listed in this report.
  • Automatic checks passed: every number matches a cited figure, every paragraph names its evidence, and there is no investment advice or copied source text.
  • A separate quality-check model raised concerns, and the report was rewritten once to address them.
  • No person reviewed this report before publication. Automatic checks confirm the numbers, not every interpretation.
Update history
  • 2026-10-28 06:00 UTC — created
  • 2026-10-28 06:00 UTC — approved+published

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