Local Government Price Index

Measuring price changes for South Australian local government purchases

The Local Government Price Index (LGPI) measures price changes specific to South Australian councils, whose spending mix differs significantly from that of households. As a result, general indicators like the Consumer Price Index (CPI) may not accurately reflect price movements faced by local government. To address this gap, the South Australian Local Government Financial Management Group commissioned the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to develop the LGPI as an independent and reliable measure. Since September 2009, the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies has prepared the index.

The LGPI is calculated using a chained Laspeyres method, based on councils’ previous-year expenditure patterns. It draws on annual data from the Local Government Grants Commission and incorporates selected ABS price indexes, including CPI and Producer Price Index data. These inputs are weighted and combined to produce recurrent, capital, and total expenditure indexes. As the LGPI relies on sampled ABS data, it should be understood as an estimate rather than an exact measure.

Local government price index data

The latest Local Government Price Index (LGPI) results are presented in the tables below, showing both quarterly and annual movements in the prices faced by councils.

The LGPI reflects actual prices paid, meaning changes are recorded after they occur. Accordingly, changes in taxes, levies or rebates affect price indexes to the extent they alter prices paid. Where such policy changes occur, their impact is reflected in the index in the period in which higher or lower prices are observed.

Users should also note that from October 2025, the ABS replaced the quarterly CPI with a monthly CPI as Australia’s primary measure of inflation. The quarterly CPI series used in the LGPI were discontinued and replaced with monthly equivalents. From the December quarter 2025, CPI series used in the quarterly LGPI are calculated as three‑month averages. At the same time, the LGPI base year was updated to 2024–25.

	Local government price index		Consumer price index (Adelaide)
Quarter	% Change from previous quarter	% Change from corresponding quarter of previous year	% Change from previous quarter	% Change from corresponding quarter of previous year
Sep15	0.5	1.0	0.3	1.1
Dec15	0.2	0.9	0.2	1.0
Mar16	0.1	0.7	-0.3	0.7
Jun16	0.1	0.9	0.5	0.7
Sep16	1.0	1.4	0.8	1.2
Dec16	0.4	1.6	0.3	1.3
Mar17	0.6	2.1	0.4	2.0
Jun17	0.1	2.0	0.1	1.6
Sep17	1.5	2.5	1.1	1.8
Dec17	0.8	2.9	0.7	2.3
Mar18	0.7	3.1	0.4	2.3
Jun18	0.1	3.1	0.4	2.7
Sep18	1.3	2.9	0.3	1.8
Dec18	0.6	2.7	0.5	1.6
Mar19	0.1	2.1	0.1	1.3
Jun19	0.5	2.5	0.5	1.4
Sep19	0.6	1.9	0.7	1.9
Dec19	0.3	1.6	0.8	2.1
Mar20	0.1	1.6	0.3	2.4
Jun20	-0.4	0.7	-1.0	0.8
Sep20	-0.3	-0.2	1.0	1.0
Dec20	0.5	0.0	0.7	1.0
Mar21	0.6	0.4	0.6	1.2
Jun21	0.6	1.4	0.5	2.8
Sep21	1.0	2.8	0.7	2.5
Dec21	1.3	3.5	1.5	3.3
Mar22	1.5	4.5	1.9	4.7
Jun22	1.4	5.4	2.1	6.4
Sep22	2.4	6.7	2.6	8.4
Dec22	1.4	6.9	1.7	8.6
Mar23	1.1	6.4	1.2	7.9
Jun23	0.6	5.6	1.1	6.9
Sep23	1.6	4.8	1.7	5.9
Dec23	1.1	4.4	0.7	4.8
Mar24	0.7	4.1	0.7	4.3
Jun24	0.7	4.2	1.3	4.5
Sep24	0.8	3.4	0.5	3.2
Dec24	0.0	2.3	-0.1	2.5
Mar25	0.7	2.3	0.5	2.2
Jun25	0.8	2.3	0.8	1.8
Sep25	1.0	2.5	1.1	2.4
Dec25	1.0	3.5	0.8	3.3

	Local government price index		Consumer price index (Adelaide)
Year	Index	% Change from previous year	Index	% Change from previous year
2000/01	48.2	na	51.5	na
2001/02	49.6	2.9	52.9	2.7
2002/03	51.5	4.0	55.0	4.0
2003/04	53.8	4.3	56.7	3.0
2004/05	55.5	3.1	58.0	2.4
2005/06	57.4	3.5	59.9	3.1
2006/07	59.6	3.9	61.4	2.6
2007/08	61.9	3.8	63.4	3.3
2008/09	64.7	4.5	65.5	3.2
2009/10	66.5	2.8	66.9	2.2
2010/11	68.8	3.5	69.0	3.2
2011/12	71.4	3.7	70.9	2.6
2012/13	73.4	2.8	72.3	2.0
2013/14	75.1	2.3	74.1	2.6
2014/15	76.3	1.7	75.3	1.6
2015/16	77.0	0.9	76.0	0.9
2016/17	78.4	1.8	77.1	1.5
2017/18	80.7	2.9	78.9	2.3
2018/19	82.7	2.6	80.1	1.5
2019/20	83.9	1.4	81.5	1.8
2020/21	84.3	0.4	82.7	1.5
2021/22	87.7	4.1	86.2	4.2
2022/23	93.4	6.5	93.1	7.9
2023/24	97.5	4.4	97.6	4.9
2024/25	100.0	2.6	100.0	2.4

	% Change from previous quarter			% Change from previous year
Quarter	Recurrent	Capital	Total	Recurrent	Capital	Total
Sep15	0.5	0.7	0.5	1.2	0.7	1.0
Dec15	0.0	0.5	0.2	0.8	1.0	0.9
Mar16	0.3	-0.3	0.1	0.8	0.6	0.7
Jun16	0.1	0.0	0.1	0.9	0.9	0.9
Sep16	1.3	0.5	1.0	1.7	0.7	1.4
Dec16	0.2	0.6	0.4	1.9	0.8	1.6
Mar17	0.4	0.9	0.6	2.1	2.0	2.1
Jun17	-0.1	0.6	0.1	1.8	2.5	2.0
Sep17	1.8	0.7	1.5	2.3	2.7	2.5
Dec17	0.6	1.1	0.8	2.8	3.2	2.9
Mar18	0.6	1.1	0.7	2.9	3.5	3.1
Jun18	0.3	-0.4	0.1	3.4	2.5	3.1
Sep18	1.2	1.4	1.3	2.7	3.3	2.9
Dec18	0.5	1.0	0.6	2.5	3.1	2.7
Mar19	0.2	0.1	0.1	2.1	2.1	2.1
Jun19	0.4	0.6	0.5	2.3	3.1	2.5
Sep19	0.9	0.2	0.6	1.9	1.9	1.9
Dec19	0.3	0.3	0.3	1.8	1.2	1.6
Mar20	0.2	0.0	0.1	1.8	1.1	1.6
Jun20	-0.2	-0.7	-0.4	1.2	-0.2	0.7
Sep20	0.1	-1.1	-0.3	0.4	-1.5	-0.2
Dec20	0.4	0.8	0.5	0.5	-1.0	0.0
Mar21	0.5	0.7	0.6	0.8	-0.4	0.4
Jun21	0.2	1.4	0.6	1.2	1.8	1.4
Sep21	0.9	1.5	1.0	2.0	4.4	2.8
Dec21	1.0	1.9	1.3	2.6	5.6	3.5
Mar22	0.9	3.0	1.5	3.0	8.0	4.5
Jun22	0.9	2.6	1.4	3.8	9.3	5.4
Sep22	1.6	4.1	2.4	4.5	12.1	6.7
Dec22	1.0	2.3	1.4	4.4	12.5	6.9
Mar23	0.8	1.6	1.1	4.4	11.0	6.4
Jun23	0.5	0.8	0.6	3.9	9.1	5.6
Sep23	2.3	0.2	1.6	4.7	5.0	4.8
Dec23	1.1	1.0	1.1	4.8	3.6	4.4
Mar24	0.4	1.5	0.7	4.4	3.5	4.1
Jun24	0.8	0.7	0.7	4.6	3.4	4.2
Sep24	1.0	0.3	0.8	3.2	3.6	3.4
Dec24	-0.1	0.2	0.0	2.0	2.8	2.3
Mar25	0.8	0.6	0.7	2.4	1.9	2.3
Jun25	0.6	1.3	0.8	2.3	2.4	2.3
Sep25	1.6	-0.4	1.0	2.9	1.8	2.5
Dec25	0.6	1.8	1.0	3.6	3.3	3.5

	%Change from previous year
Year	Recurrent	Capital	Total
2001/02	3.0	2.5	2.9
2002/03	4.1	3.5	4.0
2003/04	5.3	1.8	4.3
2004/05	3.1	3.3	3.1
2005/06	3.1	4.4	3.5
2006/07	3.8	4.1	3.9
2007/08	3.8	4.0	3.8
2008/09	3.5	7.0	4.5
2009/10	3.1	2.3	2.8
2010/11	3.9	2.5	3.5
2011/12	4.1	2.9	3.7
2012/13	2.9	2.5	2.8
2013/14	2.1	2.8	2.3
2014/15	1.5	2.0	1.7
2015/16	0.9	0.9	0.9
2016/17	1.9	1.5	1.8
2017/18	2.9	3.0	2.9
2018/19	2.4	2.9	2.6
2019/20	1.7	1.0	1.4
2020/21	0.7	-0.3	0.4
2021/22	2.9	6.9	4.1
2022/23	4.3	11.1	6.5
2023/24	4.6	3.9	4.4
2024/25	2.5	2.7	2.6

	Index number
Year	Recurrent	Capital	Total
Sep15	78.9	72.7	77.0
Dec15	78.9	73.1	77.1
Mar16	79.1	72.8	77.2
Jun16	79.2	72.8	77.2
Sep16	80.3	73.2	78.0
Dec16	80.5	73.6	78.3
Mar17	80.8	74.3	78.7
Jun17	80.7	74.7	78.8
Sep17	82.1	75.2	79.9
Dec17	82.7	76.0	80.6
Mar18	83.2	76.9	81.2
Jun18	83.4	76.6	81.2
Sep18	84.4	77.7	82.3
Dec18	84.8	78.4	82.8
Mar19	84.9	78.5	82.9
Jun19	85.3	78.9	83.3
Sep199	86.0	79.1	83.8
Dec19	86.3	79.3	84.1
Mar20	86.5	79.3	84.2
Jun20	86.3	78.8	83.9
Sep20	86.4	77.9	83.6
Dec20	86.7	78.5	84.1
Mar21	87.2	79.0	84.6
Jun21	87.3	80.2	85.1
Sep21	88.1	81.3	85.9
Dec21	89.0	82.9	87.1
Mar22	89.8	85.4	88.4
Jun22	90.6	87.6	89.6
Sep22	92.0	91.2	91.7
Dec22	93.0	93.3	93.0
Mar23	93.7	94.8	94.0
Jun23	94.2	95.5	94.6
Sep23	96.4	95.7	96.1
Dec23	97.5	96.7	97.2
Mar24	97.8	98.1	97.9
Jun24	98.6	98.8	98.6
Sep24	99.5	99.1	99.4
Dec24	99.4	99.4	99.4
Mar25	100.2	100.0	100.1
Jun25	100.8	101.2	100.9
Sep25	102.4	100.9	101.9
Dec25	103.0	102.7	102.9

	Weights based on total expenditure	Weights based on sub-components
Recurrent expenditures
Employee costs	0.316	0.484
Waste management machinery and equipment leasing	0.007	0.011
Waste management contracts	0.053	0.082
Other plant and equipment leasing	0.008	0.012
Other operating contracts	0.053	0.081
Legal and accounting services	0.006	0.009
Office and building cleaning services	0.009	0.013
Other business services	0.033	0.051
Insurance	0.021	0.032
Telecommunications and internet services	0.004	0.006
Printing, publishing and advertising	0.002	0.003
Motor vehicle parts	0.002	0.004
Motor vehicle repairs and servicing	0.005	0.007
Automotive fuel	0.007	0.011
Electricity	0.016	0.025
Gas	0.002	0.003
Water and sewerage	0.011	0.016
Road, footpath, kerbing, bridge and drain building materials	0.008	0.012
Other building and construction materials	0.002	0.004
Office supplies	0.001	0.002
Other expenses	0.086	0.132
Total recurrent expenditures	0.653	1.000
Capital expenditures
Buildings (non-dwelling)	0.081	0.233
Construction works - road, drains, footpaths, kerbing, bridges	0.138	0.399
Construction works - other	0.088	0.254
Plant and equipment - machinery etc	0.037	0.106
Plant and equipment - furniture etc	0.002	0.007
Information technology (hardware and software)	0.000	0.000
Total capital expenditures	0.347	1.000
Total recurrent and capital expenditures	1.000	n.a.