Australia wage price index rose 0.6 percent in December quarter

Omkar Godbole FXStreet Contributor

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported the fourth quarter wage price index at 0.6 percent quarter-on-quarter vs. an expected gain of 0.5 percent. The annualized figure printed at 2.1 percent vs. an expected figure of 2 percent.

DECEMBER KEY POINTS (Source ABS)

TOTAL HOURLY RATES OF PAY EXCLUDING BONUSES

QUARTERLY CHANGE (SEP QTR 2017 TO DEC QTR 2017)

The trend and seasonally adjusted indexes for Australia both rose 0.6% in the December quarter 2017. This continued the moderate rate of wage growth recorded by the series over the last two years.
The Private and Public sector rose 0.5% and 0.6% respectively, seasonally adjusted.
The rises in indexes at industry level (in original terms) ranged from 0.1% for Accommodation and food services to 1.0% for Information, media and telecommunications.

ANNUAL CHANGE (DEC QTR 2016 TO DEC QTR 2017)

The trend and seasonally adjusted indexes for Australia both rose 2.1% through the year to the December quarter 2017. This was marginally higher through the year growth than has been recorded for both series during 2017.
Rises in the original indexes through the year to the December quarter 2017 at the industry level ranged from 1.4% for Mining to 2.8% for Health care and social assistance.

Author

Omkar Godbole

FXStreet Contributor

Omkar Godbole, editor and analyst, joined FXStreet after four years as a research analyst at several Indian brokerage companies.

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