The acting head of the bureau’s prices statistics section,Leigh Merrington,said inflation was coming down.
“The 4.9 per cent increase is down from 5.6 per cent in September and below the peak of 8.4 per cent in December 2022,” he said.
Petrol prices are also starting to ease. The annual rate of inflation of automotive fuel was 19.7 per cent in September but this eased to 8.6 per cent in October.
Through October,prices fell by 2.9 per cent after jumping by 3.3 per cent in September.
Holiday travel and accommodation have been one of the factors driving inflation high over the past year.
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But in October,prices dropped by 7 per cent,taking the annual rate of growth to 1.2 per cent. In December last year,the annual rate was 29.3 per cent.
The figures follow an appearance on Tuesday by Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock in which she said Australians were unhappy with her and the bank for theirstring of interest rate increases.
Speaking in Hong Kong,Bullock said that despite the concerns of many,the nation’s households were holding up well in the face of much higher mortgage repayments.
“People are very unhappy. The cash flow channel works very quickly in Australia,and it’s very prominent,” she said.
“But what I’d like to highlight here is though,despite that noise,households and businesses in Australia are actually in a pretty good position. Their balance sheets are pretty good.”
Retail sales fell by 0.2 per cent in October as people wound back expenditure on everything but their grocery shopping.
At an annual rate,retail sales slowed to 1.2 per cent - the lowest rate,outside of the pandemic,since November 2010.
Spending on discretionary goods and services,a key indicator of the impact of interest rate rises,slowed again. Expenditure on eating out at cafes and restaurants fell for a second consecutive month.
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