RETAIL PRICE TRENDS

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25994, 23 December 1949, Page 11

RETAIL PRICE TRENDS

MOVEMENTS OVER 41 YEARS ,‘22 vements in the Period from enroll 19 t 8 a s e summarised in a special the Monthly Abstract of statistics. The supplement deals with the consumers price index. J ye .?, rs immediately before the ®t World War retail prices were very stable, s ays the supplement. “During and. immediately after that war prices rose sharply, the average annual rate of increase between 1914 and 1921 being 7.4 p «r 1922 there was a recession ox 8 per cent, from the peak level of 1921; then six years of gradually rising prices. Between 1928 and 1933 there was a sharp fall in retail prices* the average annual rate of decrease during these years being 4.6 per cent. 'Since 1933 the trend ■has been continuously upward, the average annual rate of increase between 1933 ana 1943 being 3.4 per cent. “The impact of retail price movements during and after the War has been markedly diftefeaif., from ,fhe experience in and after WeHiSj WRr I. The average annual rate of increase in'retail prices l between 1914 and 1921 was 7.4 per cent., between 19S8 aptf 1949, 3.3 per cent.. Both these peifrJd’s' cover ■ the war years and three post-wat years. During the whole period 1907-1948 the average annual increase in retail prices was 2 per cent.” : . \e.

In comparing the movemeats in New Zealand in this period with countries with a similar standard of living—New Zealand. Australia, Canada, and thfe United States of America—-the -supplement continues :

“There is considerable similarity in the movement in retail .prices in all four countries between these significant periods, with the exception that in the last period, 1945-1948, the upward movement in retail prices has been very much lower in New Zealand and Australia than in Canada or the United States. The increases in retail prices between 1938 and 1948 (covering the war and post-war years to date) in each country are: New Zealand, 33 per cent.; Australia, 44 per cent.; Canada, 52 per cent.; and the United States, 70 per cent.”