Local Government Price Index

The Local Government Price Index (LGPI) measures price movements faced by Local Government in South Australia in respect of their purchases of goods and services.

As the mix of goods and services purchased by Local Councils is quite different from that typically consumed by households, overall price movements faced by Local Councils may differ markedly from those faced by households. Overall price movements indicated by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) - which measures changes in the price of a 'basket' of goods and services which account for a high proportion of expenditure by metropolitan households - may therefore not accurately reflect price movements faced by Local Councils.

In order to improve the information available to Councils, the public and other interested parties, 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 of price movements faced by Local Government in South Australia. The South Australian Centre for Economic Studies took over responsibility for preparing the LGPI from the September quarter 2009.  Prior to this it was prepared by the ABS.

In technical terms, the LGPI is a chained Laspeyres price index which represents an arithmetic average of the pure price change of items based on expenditure patterns on the Previous Year. Annual council expenditure data provided by the Local Government Grants Commission (LGGC) is used to produce expenditure weights. These weights are then combined with select ABS price indexes (i.e. select Consumer Price Indexes and Producer Price Indexes for Adelaide and Australia) to determine the indexes contribution to a total recurrent expenditure LGPI, a total capital expenditure LGPI, and a total expenditure LGPI.

Is it important to note that the ABS price indexes used in the model are estimates, based on a sample of goods and services from a sample of retailers, wholesalers and employing organisations. Therefore, the Local Government Price Indexes which are calculated using ABS price indexes are also estimates.

  • Notes on local government price index data

    The latest quarterly and annual results for the Local Government Price Index are shown in the tables below.

    Important note on impact of the carbon price: the LGPI, like the CPI, looks backward at prices paid using real data. The introduction of a carbon price from 1 July 2012 will have a one-off impact on prices paid after this date.  Impacts of a carbon price will not show up in the LGPI until the September quarter 2012 or later.

    Important note on changes to data: from the September quarter 2012 the ABS changed the index reference period for index numbers published as part of the Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index (PPI). Due to rounding and re-referencing, some period-to-period percentage changes indicated by the CPI and PPI may differ slightly from those previously published. With these changes the opportunity was also taken to replace historical data for some PPI series used to construct the LGPI that had been discontinued from the September quarter 2009 onwards. As a consequence of these various changes, LGPI index numbers and associated percentage changes from period to period may differ slightly from those previously published.

  • Local government price index, quarterly series
      Local government
    price index    		 Local government
    price index    		 Consumer
    price index (Adelaide)    		 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
    Sep 2014 0.9 2.1 0.4 2.1
    Dec 2014 0.3 1.9 0.3 1.7
    Mar 2015 0.2 1.4 0.1 1.1
    Jun 2015  -0.1 1.3 0.5 1.2
    Sep 2015 0.5 1.0 0.3 1.1
    Dec 2015 0.2 0.9 0.2 1.0
    Mar 2016 0.1 0.7 -0.3 0.7
    Jun 2016 0.1 0.9 0.5 0.7
    Sep 2016 1.0 1.4 0.8 1.2
    Dec 2016 0.4 1.6 0.3 1.3
    Mar 2017 0.6 2.1 0.4 2.0
    Jun 2017 0.1 2.0 0.1 1.6
    Sep 2017 1.5 2.5 1.1 1.8
    Dec 2017 0.8 2.9 0.7 2.3
    Mar 2018 0.7 3.1 0.4 2.3
    Jun 2018 0.1 3.1 0.4 2.7
    Sep 2018 1.3 2.9 0.3 1.8
    Dec 2018 0.6 2.7 0.5 1.6
    Mar 2019 0.1 2.1 0.1 1.3
    Jun 2019 0.5 2.5 0.5 1.4
    Sep 2019 0.6 1.9 0.7 1.9
    Dec 2019 0.3 1.6 0.8 2.1
    Mar 2020 0.1 1.6 0.3 2.4
    Jun 2020 -0.4 0.7 -1.0 0.8
    Sep 2020 -0.3 -0.2 1.0 1.0
    Dec 2020 0.5 0.0 0.7 1.0
    Mar 2021 0.6 0.4 0.6 1.2
    Jun 2021 0.6 1.4 0.5 2.8
    Sep 2021 1.0 2.8 0.7 2.5
    Dec 2021 1.3 3.5 1.5 3.3
    Mar 2022 1.5 4.5 1.9 4.7
    Jun 2022 1.4 5.4 2.1 6.4
    Sep 2022 2.4 6.7 2.6 8.4
    Dec 2022 1.4 6.9 1.7 8.6
    Mar 2023 1.1 6.4 1.2 7.9
    Jun 2023 0.6 5.6 1.1 6.9
    Sep 2023 1.6 4.8 1.7 5.9
    Dec 2023 1.1 4.4 0.7 4.8
    Mar 2024 0.7 4.1 0.7 4.3
    Jun 2024 0.7 4.2 1.3 4.5
    Sep 2024 0.8 3.4 0.5 3.2

  • Local government price index, annual series
      Local government price index Local government price index Consumer price index (Adelaide) Consumer price index (Adelaide)
     Year Index       % Change from 
    previous year    		 Index       % Change from 
    previous year
    2000/01 100.0 na 100.0 na
    2001/02 102.9 2.9 102.7 2.7
    2002/03 107.0 4.0 106.8 4.0
    2003/04 111.6 4.3 110.0 3.0
    2004/05 115.1 3.1 112.7 2.4
    2005/06 119.1 3.5 116.2 3.1
    2006/07 123.7 3.9 119.3 2.6
    2007/08 128.5 3.8 123.2 3.3
    2008/09 134.3 4.5 127.1 3.2
    2009/10 138.1 2.8 129.8 2.2
    2010/11 142.9 3.5 134.0 3.2
    2011/12 148.2 3.7 137.5 2.6
    2012/13 152.3 2.8 140.3 2.0
    2013/14 155.8 2.3 143.9 2.6
    2014/15 158.4 1.7 146.2 1.6
    2015/16 159.9 0.9 147.4 0.9
    2016/17 162.7 1.8 149.7 1.5
    2017/18 167.4 2.9 153.1 2.3
    2018/19 171.7 2.6 155.4 1.5
    2019/20 174.2 1.4 158.2 1.8
    2020/21 174.9 0.4 160.6 1.5
    2021/22 182.0 4.1 167.4 4.2
    2022/23 193.8 6.5 180.7 7.9
    2023/24 202.3 4.4 189.5 4.9

  • Local government price index expenditure components, quarterly series
     

    % Change from previous quarter

    % Change from previous quarter

    % Change from previous quarter

    % Change from previous year

    % Change from previous year

    % Change from previous year
    Quarter Recurrent Capital Total Recurrent Capital Total
    Sep 2014 0.7 1.2 0.9 1.8 2.7 2.1
    Dec 2014 0.3 0.2 0.3 1.7 2.3 1.9
    Mar 2015 0.3 0.1 0.2 1.3 1.7 1.4
    Jun 2015 0.0 -0.3 -0.1 1.4 1.2 1.3
    Sep 2015 0.5 0.7 0.5 1.2 0.7 1.0
    Dec 2015 0.0 0.5 0.2 0.8 1.0 0.9
    Mar 2016 0.3 -0.3 0.1 0.8 0.6 0.7
    Jun 2016 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.9 0.9 0.9
    Sep 2016 1.3 0.5 1.0 1.7 0.7 1.4
    Dec 2016 0.2 0.6 0.4 1.9 0.8 1.6
    Mar 2017 0.4 0.9 0.6 2.1 2.0 2.1
    Jun 2017 -0.1 0.6 0.1 1.8 2.5 2.0
    Sep 2017 1.8 0.7 1.5 2.3 2.7 2.5
    Dec 2017 0.6 1.1 0.8 2.8 3.2 2.9
    Mar 2018 0.6 1.1 0.7 2.9 3.5 3.1
    Jun 2018 0.3 -0.4 0.1 3.4 2.5 3.1
    Sep 2018 1.2 1.4 1.3 2.7 3.3 2.9
    Dec 2018 0.5 1.0 0.6 2.5 3.1 2.7
    Mar 2019 0.2 0.1 0.1 2.1 2.1 2.1
    Jun 2019 0.4 0.6 0.5 2.3 3.1 2.5
    Sep 2019 0.9 0.2 0.6 1.9 1.9 1.9
    Dec 2019 0.3 0.3 0.3 1.8 1.2 1.6
    Mar 2020 0.2 0.0 0.1 1.8 1.1 1.6
    Jun 2020 -0.2 -0.7 -0.4 1.2 -0.2 0.7
    Sep 2020 0.1 -1.1 -0.3 0.4 -1.5 -0.2
    Dec 2020 0.4 0.8 0.5 0.5 -1.0 0.0
    Mar 2021 0.5 0.7 0.6 0.8 -0.4 0.4
    Jun 2021 0.2 1.4 0.6 1.2 1.8 1.4
    Sep 2021 0.9 1.5 1.0 2.0 4.4 2.8
    Dec 2021 1.0 1.9 1.3 2.6 5.6 3.5
    Mar 2022 0.9 3.0 1.5 3.0 8.0 4.5
    Jun 2022 0.9 2.6 1.4 3.8 9.3 5.4
    Sep 2022 1.6 4.1 2.4 4.5 12.1 6.7
    Dec 2022 1.0 2.3 1.4 4.4 12.5 6.9
    Mar 2023 0.8 1.6 1.1 4.4 11.0 6.4
    Jun 2023 0.5 0.8 0.6 3.9 9.1 5.6
    Sep 2023 2.3 0.2 1.6 4.7 5.0 4.8
    Dec 2023 1.1 1.0 1.1 4.8 3.6 4.4
    Mar 2024 0.4 1.5 0.7 4.4 3.5 4.1
    Jun 2024 0.7 0.7 0.7 4.6 3.4 4.2
    Sep 2024 1.0 0.2 0.8 3.3 3.5 3.4

  • Local government price index expenditure components, annual series
      % Change from previous year  % Change from previous year  % 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

  • Local government price index expenditure components, quarterly series, index numbers
      Index number  Index number  Index number 
     Year Recurrent Capital Total
    Sep 2014 159.3 156.4 158.4
    Dec 2014 159.8 156.6 158.8
    Mar 2015 160.3 156.7 159.2
    Jun 2015 160.4 156.3 159.1
    Sep 2015 161.1 157.4 159.9
    Dec 2015 161.2 158.2 160.2
    Mar 2016 161.6 157.7 160.4
    Jun 2016 161.8 157.7 160.5
    Sep 2016 163.9 158.5 162.2
    Dec 2016 164.3 159.4 162.7
    Mar 2017 164.9 160.8 163.6
    Jun 2017 164.7 161.7 163.8
    Sep 2017 167.7 162.8 166.2
    Dec 2017 168.8 164.6 167.5
    Mar 2018 169.8 166.5 168.7
    Jun 2018 170.2 165.8 168.8
    Sep 2018 172.3 168.1 171.0
    Dec 2018 173.1 169.7 172.0
    Mar 2019 173.4 169.9 172.3
    Jun 2019 174.1 170.9 173.1
    Sep 2019 175.6 171.2 174.2
    Dec 2019 176.2 171.7 174.8
    Mar 2020 176.5 171.7 175.0
    Jun 2020 176.2 170.5 174.3
    Sep 2020 176.3 168.7 173.8
    Dec 2020 177.1 170.0 174.8
    Mar 2021 178.0 171.1 175.7
    Jun 2021 178.3 173.5 176.8
    Sep 2021 179.9 176.1 178.6
    Dec 2021 181.7 179.5 181.0
    Mar 2022 183.3 184.9 183.7
    Jun 2022 185.0 189.7 186.3
    Sep 2022 187.9 197.3 190.7
    Dec 2022 189.8 201.9 193.4
    Mar 2023 191.4 205.2 195.5
    Jun 2023 192.3 206.8 196.6
    Sep 2023 196.8 207.2 199.8
    Dec 2023 199.0 209.2 202.0
    Mar 2024 199.7 212.4 203.5
    Jun 2024 201.2 213.9 205.0
    Sep 2024 203.2 214.4 206.5

  • Expenditure weights

    The following table summarises the latest expenditure weights used in the Local Government Price Index. Expenditure weights are updated annually based on data provided by the Local Government Grants Commission for a large sample of councils.

    Expenditure Weights, 2022/23

      Expenditure weights based on total expenditure Expenditure weights based on sub-components
    Recurrent expenditures    
    Employee costs 0.317 0.467
    Waste management machinery and equipment leasing 0.001 0.001
    Waste management contracts 0.070 0.103
    Other plant and equipment leasing 0.003 0.004
    Other operating contracts 0.073 0.107
    Legal and accounting services 0.006 0.008
    Office and building cleaning services 0.006 0.010
    Other business services 0.030 0.044
    Insurance 0.022 0.032
    Telecommunications and internet services 0.005 0.007
    Printing, publishing and advertising 0.002 0.003
    Motor vehicle parts 0.003 0.004
    Motor vehicle repairs and servicing 0.003 0.004
    Automotive fuel 0.007 0.011
    Electricity 0.017 0.025
    Gas 0.001 0.001
    Water and sewerage 0.007 0.011
    Road, footpath, kerbing, bridge and drain building materials 0.011 0.016
    Other building and construction materials 0.005 0.007
    Office supplies 0.001 0.001
    Other expenses 0.091 0.135
    Total recurrent expenditures 0.679 1.000
         
    Capital expenditures    
    Buildings (non-dwelling) 0.070 0.218
    Construction works - road, drains, footpaths, kerbing, bridges 0.142 0.442
    Construction works - other 0.077 0.239
    Plant and equipment - machinery etc 0.030 0.094
    Plant and equipment - furniture etc 0.002 0.007
    Information technology (hardware and software) 0.000 0.001
    Total capital expenditures 0.321 1.000
         
    Total recurrent and capital expenditures 1.000 n.a.