Published by Australian Council of Trade Unions ACTU

This report concludes that business pricing has added significantly to inflation in recent times.
‘Profit push’ or ‘sellers inflation’ has occurred against a background of high corporate concentration and is
reflected in the surge of corporate profits and the rise in the profit share of Gross Domestic Product. There
is much support for the view that prices have added much to inflation. This is to be found in research from
OECD, IMF, BIS, European Commission, European Central Bank, US Federal Reserve Bank, Bank of England
and many think tanks globally and locally and many detailed research studies. Claims that the rise in profit
share in Australia as explained by mining do not hold up. The profits share excluding mining has risen and
energy and other prices associated with mining have been a very significant contributor to Australian inflation.