Inflation is the lowest in years and interest rates are coming down, but that hasn’t stopped us fretting about finances. Polls show the cost of living is still our No.1 worry.

The latest Resolve Political Monitor, conducted for this masthead, found 41 per cent of voters believe “keeping the cost of living low” should be the government’s top priority, with “housing and rental affordability” a distant second on 10 per cent.

“People have experienced climbing bills for several years, and there’s been a cumulative effect on financial comfort and spending from that,” says Resolve director Jim Reed, who conducts the survey.

“Prices for day-to-day items haven’t become any cheaper, they’ve just stabilised, and many people are still feeling the pinch. Income needs to catch up for that to change.”

Other surveys tell a similar story; the Ipsos Issues Monitor, which asks respondents to nominate Australia’s three greatest challenges, shows “cost of living” shot to the top of our worry list in early 2022 and is still around record levels.

Even though the annual inflation rate eased to a tame 2.1 per cent in the June quarter, consumers........

© The Sydney Morning Herald