Treasurer Jim Chalmers has warned cost pressures will grow for at least the remainder of the year, claiming it is a "volatile" time for the economy.
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Labor has left questions whether its upcoming October budget will provide any short-term relief measures while inflation runs at more than double speed.
National account figures published on Wednesday show gross domestic product for the June quarter came in at 0.9 per cent. Annually it was up 3.6 per cent compared with the second quarter last year.
Both of which came in line with market predictions. However economists had downgraded forecasts for the quarter.
Dr Chalmers issued caution about the GDP figures, saying Treasury is forecasting inflation to peak at 7.75 per cent which will generate more rate hikes by the Reserve Bank.
He noted there is not an "overnight" switch to bring down cost pressures, but claimed the government would introduce long-term relief packages, including cheaper childcare and prescriptions.
"There is not a switch that we can click to make cost of living pressures go away overnight, or to make real wages grow again," Dr Chalmers said.
"I know that people would prefer that these skyrocketing cost of living weren't there. And we've been upfront with people about our ability to eliminate those cost pressures and about our capacity to fund some of our priorities."
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said increases in travel had fuelled a rise in consumption over the quarter, while stronger net trade had added 1 percentage point to total GDP.
Higher commodity prices had also assisted the resources sector.
However constrains are starting to show which was evidenced by lower building and construction investment over the quarter.
Dr Chalmers flagged commodity prices particularly in iron ore had also weakened.
"Rises in household spending and exports drove growth in the June quarter," ABS head of national accounts Sean Crick said.
"This is the third consecutive quarter of economic growth, following a contraction in the September quarter 2021, which was impacted by the Delta outbreak."
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor outlined Labor needed to produce a plan to tackle the short term pressures in the economy, flagging it would impact how much money families and households would have to spend at Christmas.
"He's (Jim Chalmers) getting a sore neck the amount of time he's looking backwards and blaming others," Mr Taylor said.
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"He needs to get on and put in place a plan to deal with the situation."
Higher inflation is being fuelled by global supply constraints due to COVID-19 and commodity shocks sparked by the war in Ukraine.
The ABS noted households were only spending about two-thirds of what they were before the pandemic.
Savings ratios had decreased but were still above pre-pandemic levels.
"Households were continuing to save but at a declining rate over the past three quarters," Mr Crick said.
"While the 8.7 per cent household saving ratio was the lowest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it remains above pre-pandemic levels."
EY chief economist Cherelle Murphy said consumer are likely to change their spending habits in the second half of the year.
"We expect consumers will ultimately change their spending behaviours, especially as a large proportion (over 30 per cent) of households roll-off fixed rate mortgages over the next year or so, and rates continue to rise," she said.
"But there is some uncertainty in terms of the timing and magnitude of this change, which will largely depend on how aggressively the RBA acts in the face of stubborn inflation."
Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume said the federal government needs to do more to tackle inflation and claimed the RBA is doing too much heavy lifting with its "blunt instrument" of hiking interest rates.
She noted monetary policy overreach would not be needed if fiscal policy was doing more to combat rising inflation.
The full effect of rate rises are expected to hit borrowers later this year with more cuts by the central bank expected to come in the months ahead.
On Tuesday, Labor outlined cost-of-living relief would be on the cards through its cheaper childcare and medicine plans.
The government's 90 per cent childcare subsidy is not scheduled to be introduced until July next year.