Petrol prices lifted by almost 10 Australian cents (US 6.5 cents) a litre last week, with the national average unleaded sitting at $1.83 a litre.
The rise coincides with the return of the full fuel excise tax on Wednesday, although petrol prices weren’t meant to surge immediately.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said it would take several days for the extra 22 cents a litre to appear at the pump as retailers would need to work through their supplies of discounted fuel.
“As some of the cheaper fuel which has been underground in tanks runs out, and is replaced by the more expensive fuel, but we’ve also got the regular fuel price cycle as well,” he told reporters in Canberra.
He also said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would be watching retailers carefully for signs of unnecessarily high pricing.
“Indication so far is that the market is behaving more or less appropriately,” Chalmers said.
Brisbane is currently experiencing the highest fuel prices of the major cities, according to the weekly Australian Institute of Petroleum fuel report, with the average price sitting at $1.91 a litre.
Meanwhile, building approvals have recovered after dropping to a decade low last month.
They rose 28.1 per cent to 17,497, after falling 18.2 percent in July to their lowest level since January 2012, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
But lending for housing has fallen for three months in a row, easing by 3.4 percent to $27.4 billion in August after an 8.5 percent drop in July.
The value of new home commitments for housing fell 3.4 percent to $27.4 billion in August after an 8.5 percent drop in July.
The Housing Industry Association said the figures were “sobering”.
“There is still a significant volume of work under construction that is driving economic activity across the economy and keeping the unemployment rate at exceptionally low levels,” said HIA economist Tom Devitt said.
The souring state of the global economy is weighing heavily on consumers and driving confidence lower.
A survey released on Tuesday found consumer confidence lost some of its September gains, dipping by 2.6 percent.
Four in five of the confidence subindices in ANZ and Roy Morgan’s weekly consumer confidence survey fell, with ‘current economic conditions’ plummeting by 7.6 per cent and ’future economics conditions’ falling by 7.5 per cent.
ANZ economist David Plank said consumers were likely to be reacting to a series of negative news stories, including the hawkish Federal Reserve commentary tanking the Australian dollar and the fallout from the UK’s mini-budget.
Consumers also reacted to the return of the full fuel excise, with ‘weekly inflation expectations’ surging 5.6 percent, its highest level since mid-August.
“Consumer confidence will remain fragile as long as market volatility is the dominant theme globally,” Plank said.
The slide in consumer confidence followed a jump last week, but confidence has remained low in recent months based on long-run averages.
Job ads have also fallen again for the fourth month in a row, declining 0.5 percent.
Despite the decline, job ad numbers are still high. The ANZ report said they were up 22.3 per cent on the year.
