The Reserve Bank’s economic outlook suggests further room to cut interest rates, but it’s not all good news for most working-age Australians.<\/p>\n
Rents continued to rise but at a more modest pace \u2014 rent increased 3.9 per cent annually in the month, easing back from a 4.2 per cent lift in June and 4.5 per cent in May.<\/p>\n
“This is the lowest annual growth in rental prices since November 2022, consistent with stable vacancy rates across most capital cities,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
the ABS said.<\/p>\n
Transport costs fell in the month, with fuel prices down 5.5 per cent in the year to July, continuing the declines of the previous two months.<\/p>\n
After falling over the year to June, holiday travel and accommodation prices rose 3.3 per cent in the year to July, as the price of domestic holidays lifted in line with school holiday demand.<\/p>\n
Fruit and vegetable prices were up 4.8 per cent annually, slightly below June’s rise, as avocado, grape and raspberry prices increased.<\/p>\n
“Higher cocoa bean prices and egg shortages have contributed to price rises for snacks and confectionery (+5.6 per cent) and eggs (+18 per cent) in the 12 months to July,” the ABS noted.<\/p>\n
Supermarket competition heating up, Woolies disappoints investors<\/p>\n
Grocery price rises could be tempered by rivalry between the major supermarket chains, as Woolworths and Coles post results showing their continued competition with Aldi.<\/p>\n
Woolworths reported a 19 per cent drop in its underlying profit, to $1.4 billion for the 2025 financial year.<\/p>\n
The retail group’s headline profit came in at $963 million, an improvement on the previous year when it was hit by higher one-off impairment charges.<\/p>\n
![\"Signs](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/8b84f2e51ce6c94609df5408308dd51b\")
<\/p>\n
Woolworths, Coles and Aldi are competing on price as consumers continue to report cost-of-living pressures. (AAP: Lukas Coch)<\/p>\n
Chief executive Amanda Bardwell said “current trading remains below our ambition”, noting “a highly competitive market right now on groceries and food”.<\/p>\n
Woolworths group sales lifted 1.7 per cent over the year, or 3.6 per cent if accounting for the fact there were 53 weeks in the previous financial year.<\/p>\n
“Despite revenue growth, the results fell short of expectations, reflecting cautious consumer spending and a competitive retail landscape,” fund manager Roger Montgomery told ABC News.<\/p>\n
Ms Bardwell said customer feedback suggested cost-of-living concerns were still front of mind for shoppers, despite rate cuts.<\/p>\n
“Families and young people focused on value,” the CEO told a conference call after the earnings release.<\/p>\n
“Customers are telling us they’re stressed and overloaded.<\/p>\n
“There’s also been an increase in more frequent shopping \u2026 but buying less.”<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Coles reported a statutory net profit of $1.08 billion for the 2025 financial year, down 3.5 per cent from a year earlier, while supermarket sales rose 4.3 per cent.<\/p>\n
Analysts at RBC Capital Markets said the Coles result beat their forecasts, “driven by strong growth in supermarkets, partially offset by a weaker performance for liquor”.<\/p>\n
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Coles said sales revenue grew 4.9 per cent in the first eight weeks of the 2026 financial year, which was higher than analyst expectations.<\/p>\n
Meantime, in the first eight weeks of the current financial year, Woolworths reported a 2.1 per cent increase in food sales.<\/p>\n
Woolworths shares were down 12.8 per cent by 2pm AEST on Wednesday,<\/p>\n
Coles shares were up 3.3 per cent, adding to a more than 8 per cent gain on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inflation posted a resurgence in July, with consumer prices rising 2.8 per cent annually, according to the monthly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[1796,51,94720,42282,487,31786,1700,1312,6327,35,131607,131608,21508,48863,476,478,3716,2070,16,15,69107],"class_list":{"0":"post-377024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-aldi","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-coles","11":"tag-consumer-price-index","12":"tag-cost-of-living","13":"tag-cpi","14":"tag-economy","15":"tag-electricity","16":"tag-electricity-prices","17":"tag-energy","18":"tag-energy-bill-rebate","19":"tag-energy-bill-relief","20":"tag-food-prices","21":"tag-grocery-prices","22":"tag-inflation","23":"tag-interest-rates","24":"tag-rba","25":"tag-supermarkets","26":"tag-uk","27":"tag-united-kingdom","28":"tag-woolworths"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115099521893892624","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}