The Australian Bureau of Statistics found a math-related mistake in its childcare cost tracking that went on for about a year (since the govt changed its support rules mid-last year)
In the july-to-september report childcare costs showed up as 163.0 points which was 5.8% too high; yearly growth shouldnt be 12.1% but rather 10.7%. The error happened due to wrong calculations of how government money-help affects prices
Since childcare makes up less than 1% of all price checking items its impact on inflation was tiny - just 0.04% off the mark. The Reserve Bank of Australiaʼs key tracking numbers werent touched by this mix-up at all
The stats office will fix everything in its next report (coming out in a week) but wont change old numbers: they say this could make things confusing for people who use these numbers to adjust prices and payments. The fix-up means the childcare index should be at 153.5 instead of the wrong higher number
The error came from not counting right how much help families get from the government to pay for childcare (which started around july last year) but this didnt mess up the big picture of aussie prices