A new report by the Reserve Bank shows that we really are not getting the benefit of the high Australian dollar.

It shows only about a tenth of the Australian dollar's recent rise is filtering through to domestic prices, and it may take three years to do so.

But the report does not put sole blame on price gouging by retailers, saying local costs like rent, wages and transport are reducing the amount of benefit Australians see from their currency's rise.

Despite recent volatility, the Australian dollar has remained consistently above parity with the greenback since February. The local currency is also more than a third higher than its average in the mid-2000s.

Russell Zimmerman from the Australian Retailers Association says the trend is not price gouging by his members, but reflects the other costs of doing business.

Sorry, this audio has expired Only a fraction of exchange gains make it to shoppers ( Michael Janda )

"Retailers are facing huge costs. Your rent is an immense problem to you, because most rents are set at CPI plus 2 per cent, so over the term of a five-year lease, you've got somewhere around about a 27 to 30 per cent increase on your lease," he said.

"A specialty fashion store could easily be paying up to 20 per cent of their turnover in rent."

Mr Zimmerman says penalty rates on weekends are also a major rising cost for retailers that offset cheaper imports from a higher dollar.

"Over the next couple of years we will be paying time-and-a-half on Saturday, double time on Sunday, in an industry where people expect retail stores to be open seven days a week," he said.

Unsurprisingly, the Reserve Bank estimates more than twice as much currency impact for imported tradeable goods, including electronics, clothing, footwear and cars.

And Bureau of Statistics inflation figures show some goods have consistently fallen in price in recent years - such as electronics - while others prices have stayed pretty much the same, like clothing.

But Mr Zimmerman says even in imported goods, there are overseas factors - including rising labour costs - that are currently offsetting the high value of the dollar.

"In the fashion area, we're seeing increases in the cost of cotton which has flowed onto things like linen and bamboo and flax and all sorts of other products - rayon, nylon - that are used in the industry. So we are seeing some increases in raw materials," he said.

"The other thing that is affecting a lot of the products we import from overseas is the cost of labour in China.

"Their workers are looking for - and receiving - better conditions, so the cost of doing business is going up in China."

But the Reserve Bank report says there does seem to be a slightly smaller lag in the pass-through of exchange rate benefits in recent years, and that may be due to extra competitive pressure from the internet.