Pitch Engine
The Times Real Estate

.

Vital Signs: Why we distrust the consumer price index

  • Written by Richard Holden, Professor of Economics and PLuS Alliance Fellow, UNSW
Vital Signs: Why we distrust the consumer price indexOfficially, our inflation rate is lower than at any time since the 1950s, but we've reasons for doubting it.Shutterstock

Officially, Australia’s rate of inflation is 1.9%.

It’s the lowest it has been on a sustained basis since the 1950s and early 1960s.

But try to tell that to anyone and they will laugh at you, or worse.

The Bureau of...

Read more: Vital Signs: Why we distrust the consumer price index

More Articles ...

  1. If Australia cares about Pacific nations, we should also invest in their care givers
  2. Why we should worry less about retirement - and leave super at 9.5%
  3. Initiative Q is not the new Bitcoin, but here’s why the idea has value
  4. Tinkering can achieve a lot. Politics isn't broken
  5. Renters Beware: how the pension and super could leave you behind
  6. Abolish stamp duty. The ACT shows the rest of us how to tax property
  7. Cricket Australia's culture problem is it still doesn't think fans are stakeholders in the game
  8. Traditional culture may help Indigenous households manage money better
  9. Five questions (and answers) about casual employment
  10. Expecting autistic people to 'fit in' is cruel and unproductive; value us for our strengths
  11. Grattan Institute Orange Book 2018. State governments matter, vote wisely
  12. Vital Signs: Australia's 5% jobless rate is not full employment; pushing up interest rates would be wrong
  13. Bank codes of conduct: add bars to the window dressing and make them legally binding
  14. The internet has done a lot, but so far little for economic growth
  15. Supermarkets are not milking dairy farmers dry: the myth that obscures the real problem
  16. Helping farmers in distress doesn't help them be the best: the drought relief dilemma
  17. With a billion reasons not to trust super trustees, we need regulators to act in the public interest
  18. Please don't dismiss the PC inquiry into mental health as 'just another inquiry'
  19. Vital Signs: the housing market might deflate, but it might pop. Here's how
  20. How to make work menopause-friendly: don't think of it as a problem to be managed
  21. Bringing in backpackers is not the right way to get more workers onto farms
  22. The Modern Slavery Bill is a start, but it won't guarantee us sweeter chocolate
  23. Soft power goes hard: China's economic interest in the Pacific comes with strings attached
  24. For the sake of our retirement savings, it's time to reform the investment management boys' club
  25. We need to know more about charities to be sure they are helping their cause, not themselves
  26. Newsflash. For most, energy remains affordable
  27. Vital Signs: Amazon has lifted its wages, but the implications aren't as good as you might think
  28. Perfect information: the customer reviews most likely to influence purchasing decisions
  29. Cricket Australia's culture sore: captains of the finance industry should take note
  30. 'Just like home'. New survey finds most renters enjoy renting, although for many it's expensive
  31. Labor's pay policy merely hints at helping low paid workers rather than actually doing it
  32. Daylight saving is not something for economists to lose sleep over
  33. Averting a plane crash: what to do about the global pilot shortage
  34. Equality: our secret weapon to fight corruption
  35. Spirals and circles, snakes and ladders. Why women's super is complex
  36. Relax. The divide between the taxed and the 'taxed-nots' isn't new and doesn't buy elections
  37. Three simple steps to fix our banks
  38. Hayne holds fire, but the banks' day of reckoning is coming
  39. Trust has to be as important as profit if banks and their boards are to regain their corporate legitimacy
  40. The problem with Australia's banks is one of too much law and too little enforcement
  41. Vital Signs: for all its worth, the banking royal commission could hurt a generation of battlers
  42. Health care is getting cheaper (unless you need a specialist, or a dentist)
  43. Bring on the royal commission, but we have a plan to act on aged care right now
  44. Growers are in a jam now, but strawberry sabotage may well end up helping the industry
  45. There is nothing sacrosanct about corporate culture; we can and must regulate it
  46. Budget deficit comes in at $10.1 billion, in boost for early return to surplus
  47. Privatising WestConnex is the biggest waste of public funds for corporate gain in Australian history
  48. Super. If Labor really wanted to help women in retirement, it would do something else
  49. Vital signs: the GFC and me. Ten years on, what have we learned?
  50. We won't fix female super until we fix female pay, but Labor's ideas are a start