00:02As households try to rein in their spending, small business owners like Casey are seeing
00:08their sales slip.
00:09This year's been pretty tough, yeah really tough.
00:12Nobody's out and about eating and obviously that hurts us as well, you know we can't always
00:17afford wages and that kind of thing.
00:20If people aren't here then you know the employment is not necessarily needed all the time.
00:24The ACT inflation rate has jumped to 4.7% in the 12 months to September, higher than
00:32the national average of 4.3%.
00:35Fuel, electricity, childcare and school fees as well as the cost of new builds are rising
00:41rapidly, leaving Canberrans looking for ways to save.
00:45No going out, no coffees, no, no, everything is done at home, it is impossible to get ahead.
00:50At the moment, especially here in Canberra, the cost of living is just skyrocketing.
00:55We've still got children in high school so there's a lot of excursions and so on so that's
01:00kind of biting into any other social activities that we might have as adults.
01:04The good things in life like entertainment and that is cut down completely because you
01:10just can't afford it.
01:11Rent has increased in incredible amount and it's probably what's killing the small businesses
01:17here the most.
01:18The higher than expected inflation data has all but cleared the field for a Melbourne
01:22Cup Day interest rate rise.
01:24Most economists are now pricing in a lift to the cash rate to 4.85%, its highest level in
01:3218 years.
