Import Prices QoQ

Import Prices QoQ is the quarter-on-quarter change in Australia's Import Price Index (IPI). The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) publishes it in International Trade Price Indexes, Australia. It covers merchandise landed in Australia, nationally only, priced free on board (f.o.b.).

It excludes services, freight, insurance, duties and taxes. It is not the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Published since May 1983 with the Export Price Index (EPI) from June quarter 2001, it uses a 2011-12 base of 100.0. A purposive panel of major importers reprices specified products, folding minor goods into similar lines.

Prices relate to the quarter in which goods physically arrive. Results appear about 30 days after quarters ending March, June, September and December, at 11:30am Canberra time.

Collection runs through a tailored webform survey of major importers, plus administrative data. Each release pairs imports with the Export Price Index, contribution tables, Balance of Payments groupings and downloads. No revision policy is stated; each September quarter new weights link to the published June quarter level. The ABS states no trading threshold; listed uses are deflators, inflation signals, contract indexation and policy input.

Moves follow SITC (Standard International Trade Classification) sections weighted by import value. Goods also split into Consumption, Capital and Intermediate and other goods.

• Machinery and transport equipment, 42.46%: road vehicles, electrical and industrial machinery, telecom equipment and computers.
• Miscellaneous manufactured articles, 12.92%: apparel, professional instruments, furniture, footwear and optical goods.
• Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials, 11.44%: chiefly petroleum and related products, with gas and coal.
• Chemicals and related products, 10.79%: medicines, essential oils, fertilisers, plastics and other chemicals.
• Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material, 10.37%: metal manufactures, rubber goods, iron and steel, paper and textiles.
• Food, gold, crude materials, beverages and oils, 5.78%, 4.01%, 1.17%, 0.78% and 0.28%.

They cover foods like coffee, tea, vegetables and cereals, plus non-monetary gold, crude materials, beverages and oils. In December quarter 2023, published February 1, 2024, the index rose 1.1% on the quarter but fell 3.1% through the year. Road vehicles rose 2.7% as past factory costs passed to importers, while petroleum rose 1.4% on supply tightness and Middle East conflict that later eased. Telecommunications equipment fell 2.9% on cheaper older phones, with a weaker Australian dollar lifting Australian-dollar prices and damping the fall. Through the year petroleum fell 14.0%, so one quarter can rise inside a yearly fall.

1. Item selection: Commodities are chosen by prior-year import value; minor unpriced goods follow similar priced goods.
2. Specification pricing: A defined product sample is repriced quarterly, with make, model, unit, packaging, sales terms and origin fixed.
3. Constant-quality adjustment: When specifications change, prices are adjusted so only pure change remains, better quality down and weaker quality up.
4. Quarterly attribution: Prices belong to the physical-arrival quarter; multilateral inputs span all three months.
5. Free-on-board valuation: Imports are valued at origin-port price, excluding freight, insurance, duties and taxes.
6. Currency conversion: Foreign-currency prices use relevant exchange rates, so a stronger Australian dollar lowers Australian-dollar prices and a weaker dollar raises them.
7. Multilateral pricing: Since December quarter 2024 some indexes use Fixed Effects Window Splicing (FEWS) on monthly unit values over 27 months. Each product tracks against itself on two or more observations, spliced onto the prior index. It covers more trade with less burden on firms.
8. Aggregation: Results form a chained Lowe index, reweighted each September, on a 2011-12 base of 100.0. Financial-year figures average the quarters; rounding can break exact adds.
9. Percent change: Moves appear as points and percent changes for quarters, years and financial years. Suppose the index moves from 120.0 to 121.3: points change is 1.3, and QoQ is 1.3 divided by 120.0 times 100, about 1.1%.
10. Seasonal adjustment: No seasonal adjustment is described; moves read as measured.