Buoyant housing sector pushes CPI up in March quarter

The rise was less than the 0.6 per cent increase forecast by the Reserve Bank and the 0.5 per cent increase picked by economists.

It comes after a rise of 0.7 per cent in the December quarter and 0.5 per cent in the September quarter.

The last quarterly decrease in the CPI was in the March 2001 quarter.

Year on year, the rise was 1.5 per cent, which was below...