STILL INCREASING.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 191, 13 August 1919, Page 7

STILL INCREASING.

_ «— — THE COST OF LIVING. OFFICIAL FIGURES. •By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON", this day. The cost of living index number, as compiled by the Government Statistician, for three food groups (groceries, dairy produce, and meat), shows a slight increase for the mouth of June compared with the May index. The number for June is 1525, as compared with 1524 for May. The number was 1553 in January" of this ye.ir. The statistician states that on the June figures the increase in cost of foodstuffs since July, 1914, has been 42.50 per cont. Tho increase in food and rents combined during the same period has been 2!).(i7 per cent. It is not practicable at present, states the statistician, to calculate an index number to show the increase in the retail prices over the whole of the domestic expenditure of an average household, but three food groups and rent, in regard to which above increase of approximately 30 per cent, has taken place, cover most important and necessary items in the average domestic expenditure, and form more than one-half of the total.