Australia Import Prices

Australia's import prices increased by 1.8 percent quarter-on-quarter in Q4 of 2022, easing from a 3.0 percent gain in Q3. This was the eighth straight quarter of growth in cost of imports but the softest pace since Q1 2021, due to weakening demand amid global economic uncertainty. Main contributors to the rise were: electrical machinery apparatus and appliances (+3.9%), driven primarily by the depreciation of the local currency, and inflationary pressures in production being passed through; telecommunications equipment (+4.3%); and general industrial machinery (+4.1%) driven by higher material costs and the depreciation of the Australian dollar. Offsetting the rise was a 3.7% fall in petroleum, petroleum products, and related materials; and crude fertilizers (-42.3%), driven by weak global demand for sulphur, alongside an excess in supply in the market. Through the year to Q4, the import prices rose 14.9%, after a 19.3% surge in Q3.