Water & Sewerage Index (CPI): methodology

What this metric measures

ABS Consumer Price Index for water and sewerage - the third essential utility bill after electricity and gas. Published as an index number.

Why it matters: Water and sewerage charges are unavoidable for every household, and their increases rarely attract the attention electricity does.

Source & provenance

Publisher

ABS Consumer Price Index (Cat. 6401.0) - Water and sewerage sub-index, quarterly (national)

Update frequency

quarterly

Licence

CC BY 4.0

How the score is computed

The score is a 0–100 normalisation of the latest observation, compared to a baseline window. The traffic-light rating (RAG) reflects both the absolute level and the recent trend.

Direction

Lower is better

Trend window

24 months

Baseline

Last 10 years

{
  "red_min_pct_of_baseline": 110,
  "amber_max_pct_of_baseline": 110,
  "green_max_pct_of_baseline": 95
}