Time to buy cereal, tech

Some items cheapest in decade

A COST crunch is being felt by many households, but Australians are getting more bang for their buck across thousands of products and services compared with a decade ago.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows while overall costs have climbed almost 20 per cent since mid-2011, prices of some products have plunged more than 12 per cent.

Computing equipment had the biggest price falls, down 56 per cent, followed by telecommunication costs falling 25 per cent.

Fruit is also 15 per cent cheaper than a decade ago, while breakfast cereals, bank fees and even ice cream cost less today.

But these small wins can be overshadowed by bigger price increases in necessities such as health, education and utilities, economists and budgeting specialists say.

MyBudget founder Tammy Barton said price falls in technology and other consumer goods had been “helpful and no doubt provided some relief to households”.

Households had been saving more money during the pandemic, she said, but that could be offset by increasing spending in other areas online.

She said consumers should be patient and shop around.

“It is definitely worth holding off on big ticket purchases until there is a sale,” she said.

“Ask for discounts for paying with cash on items like TVs and whitegoods, and where possible try to avoid buy now, pay later schemes.”

KPMG chief economist Brendan Rynne said falling prices were all about global supply chains and competition among manufacturers, retailers and other businesses.

“We are now getting bananas from around the world, and we are not just dependent on bananas from north Queensland,” he said.

Countries with cheaper labour costs were forcing down manufacturing costs of many products and this flowed through to consumers, Dr Rynne said.

And IT products were still following Moore’s Law, where computing power doubled while technology costs halved every two years, he said.

Household appliances also cost less today than a decade ago.

The ABS data shows electricity, gas, council rates, insurance, education and health costs have all jumped at least 40 per cent – double overall inflation – in the past decade.