Yoghurt And Cheese Drive Food Prices Up

Yoghurt And Cheese Drive Food Prices Up

Food prices increased 0.4 percent in the September 2007 month, Statistics New Zealand said today.

The increase was mainly due to higher prices for the grocery food subgroup (up 0.8 percent).

Within the grocery food subgroup, the main contributors to the 0.8 percent increase were higher prices for yoghurt (up 10.2 percent), and cheese (up 4.9 percent). The main downward contribution came from lower prices for snack foods (down 2.2 percent).

The only downward subgroup contribution came from lower prices for fruit and vegetables (down 1.2 percent) in the September 2007 month. Within this subgroup, the main contributors to the decrease were lettuce (down 18.7 percent), cucumber (down 27.9 percent), and courgettes (down 21.8 percent). The main upward contributions came from higher prices for bananas (up 4.7 percent) and stone fruit (up 8.1 percent).

For the year to September 2007, food prices rose 3.4 percent. The upward contributions came from higher prices for the following subgroups: grocery food (up 3.6 percent), meat, poultry and fish (8.0 percent), restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food (up 3.7 percent), and non-alcoholic beverages (up 0.4 percent). The only downward contribution came from the fruit and vegetables subgroup (down 1.4 percent).

Geoff Bascand
Government Statistician
15 October 2007

END

There is a companion Hot Off The Press information release published – Food Price Index: September 2007.

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