Travel, food, and power prices push up CPI

Travel, food, and power prices push up CPI

The consumers price index (CPI) rose 1.0 percent for the June 2011 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today. "The 1.0 percent increase in the CPI reflects higher prices for petrol, food, air travel, and electricity," Statistics NZ's prices manager Chris Pike said.

The transport group rose 2.7 percent in the June 2011 quarter, with higher prices for petrol (up 4.0 percent), international air fares (up 6.8 percent), and domestic air fares (up 8.0 percent). "Petrol prices reached a new peak in early May 2011 – slightly above their peak in July 2008 – before decreasing later in May and June," Mr Pike said.

Food prices rose 1.1 percent in the June 2011 quarter, with higher prices for grocery food (up 1.5 percent) and vegetables (up 6.7 percent). Significant individual upward contributions came from seasonally higher prices for tomatoes (up 63.6 percent) and lettuce (up 30.1 percent). The tomato price rise also reflects a supply shortage caused by the January floods in Queensland.

The housing and household utilities group rose 0.9 percent, with prices for electricity up 2.7 percent, purchase of new housing up 0.9 percent, and rentals for housing up 0.5 percent. The price rise for purchasing new housing was influenced by rises in Canterbury and in the rest of the South Island.

In the year to the June 2011 quarter, the CPI increased 5.3 percent, including a 2.3 percent increase in the December 2010 quarter when GST rose from 12.5 to 15 percent. If prices collected for the June 2011 quarter CPI had been processed with GST at 12.5 percent, the CPI would have risen 0.9 percent in the June 2011 quarter and 3.3 percent in the year to the June 2011 quarter.

Significant upward contributions in the year to the June 2011 quarter came from higher prices for transport (up 11.0 percent), food (up 7.0 percent), and housing and household utilities (up 4.4 percent). Petrol prices increased 20.1 percent, cigarette and tobacco prices were up 16.0 percent, and electricity prices rose 7.8 percent.

The CPI measures the rate of price change of goods and services purchased by households. Statistics NZ visits 3,000 shops around New Zealand to collect prices for the CPI and check product sizes and features.

ConsumersPriceIndexJun11qtr (pdf)

Statistics New Zealand advisory 18 July 2011

Please note that the 5.3 percent increase in the Consumers Price Index (CPI) for the year to the June 2011 quarter is the highest since a 7.6 percent increase in the year to the June 1990 quarter. The 1990 figure included the rise in GST from 10 to 12.5 percent on 1 July 1989.

In this morning's CPI information release we stated that the increase in the year to the June 1990 quarter was 7.3 percent, instead of 7.6 percent.

Geoff Bascand Government Statistician

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