Dr Sam Wylie

It's just like blowing up a balloon.

There's some pressure that's forcing everything up, everything out.

And so that's what inflation means.

And there's different types of inflation.

And what we're referring to here is consumer price inflation, the cost of living inflation.

as they say.

And that's the CPI.

That's the thing that is put together by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

It's reported every three months in Australia.

And it's a big deal when it comes out, the cost of living.

And it's an index.

I know I'm banging on a bit here, but it's an index, which means it's helpful to explain what an index is.

So if I was to say to you, Owen, you know, what happened to inflation last year, it's unhelpful to come back with computers up 6% and airline travel down 5% and cars up 4% and chewing gum up 3%, etc.

You know, I don't want, it's unhelpful for you to bang on and on about it.

It'd be good just to have one number.

That tells me how much prices and the cost of living went up.

And that's what the CPI is.

That's what the Consumer Price Index is.

It's an average across 125 different things that an ordinary household buys.

And it's a weighted average.