Food, Consumer Goods Cost More Throughout World

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30588, 3 November 1964, Page 20

Food, Consumer Goods Cost More Throughout World

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON. The cost of living is still rising in most parts of the world. It shows no sign of halting at 1964 levels. Bat wages have gone up too and millions of people are enjoying a higher standard of life than ever before.

A Reuter world-wide survey shows that although costs are still going up, the rate of increase varies from country to country. For instance, prices have soared this year in France and Italy but. have been fairly stable in the United States, Britain and South Africa. Nigeria has been hard hit. Unofficial reports say the cost of living rose by 25 per cent there in the first six months of this year.

Japan is also suffering from a sharp increase. The 1960 consumer price index of 100 in Japan now stands at 126.

Costs in Argentina have sky-rocketed—but wages are also up. The 1960 index in Buenos Aires of 100 now stands at 219 while the index of wages paid to industrial workers rose from 100 to 246 in the same period. It is difficult to gauge cost of living increases in Communist countries because they do not publish price indices. But official statistics in Moscow show that Soviet housewives bought more food last year than ever before.

Sales of all consumer goods throughout the Soviet Union in 1963 were 2.5 per cent higher than in the previous year, according to the statistics. Soviet families bought more washing machines, refrigerators and television sets last year than ever before. Sales of smaller hard goods such as watches, cameras and sewing machines went down. The cost of living in China is one of the lowest in the world—but so are wages and living standards. There has been a tremendous improvement, however, in the supply of foodstuffs and other consumer goods over the last two years. In the lean years, the Chinese had more cash in their pockets than goods to spend it on. Now there is plenty to buy if they can afford it. Reuter correspondents in world centres made the following reports about increases in the cost of living: New York The cost of living in the United States has shown a gradual rise of about 1.3 per cent annually in the last six years on the basis of the

Labour Department’s consumer price index. In recently-published figures, the price index rose one-fifth of 1 per cent in the month of June to reach 108. The latest price index is based on prices for the years 195759. About 60 per cent of the rise in the last six years has been attributed by Labour Department officials to increases in the cost of services, ranging from hair-cuts to taxis, and from medical care to rents. However, in durable goods there has been a basic stability, marked especially by new automobiles. The price index rise has been far slower in the last six years than in the previous 12 years since the Second World War. London The cost of living in Britain, which has risen steadily since the Second World War, is continuing its upward trend. In the last two years it has risen by 4 per cent. The average household spent an extra 10s a week last year to cover increases in rent, rates, food, and other domestic expenses. Its average weekly expenditure is about £l7 10s. Expenditure on food increased by about 4s to £5 Bs. A three-bedroomed house in Britain which should have cost £2150 10 years ago now has a value of £4OOO and property prices continue to spiral. Paris The cost of living in France has risen so steeply in recent years that it is discouraging tourists. According to the Hotel Keepers’ Association the number of visitors to Paris this year is 20 per cent less than it was last year. The reason, the hotel-keepers say, is rising prices. A few years ago a visitor could find a reasonable “menu touristique” for five francs (about 7s). Now he has to pay 15 francs (£1) to eat adequately and have a glass of wine with his meal. Prices of hotels rooms have also risen dramatically. A single room with a bath now costs from 30 francs (£2) upwards. For the ordinary Frenchman, too, life is more expensive. But his main pleasure, as important to him as tea to an Englishman, his wine, has risen very little over the last five years. Boiui West Germany’s “economic wonder" has meant that the average family has lived better each year for most of the period since 1949, when the West German state was established.

The latest official figures indicate that the trend 1 is con--1 tinuing. They average family of four this summer had to pay ab ° u * per cent more to meet pnce ; rises, compared with one year previously. Wage figures for the same period indicated that the net rise would be about five per cent. With the three per cent “gain”, the Germany family might well have saved enough to buy a car. In the two years to January this year the nuinber of cars registered jumped from about 5,400,000 to 7,200,000. „ . Not every family, though, can yet afford a car, so perhaps they will choose television. The number of sets licensed shot up from about 7,500.00 in February last year to 9,285,000 in May this year. Rome Italy’s cost of living has gone up by nearly 20 per cent since 1961, according to official statistics, but most people agree that the actual jump in prices is even higher. The price spiral has become alarming. This year the central office of statistics stopped using the year 1953 as the basis for calculating the cost-of-living index, and switched to 1961. The official index, calcula-

ted on the needs of a work-ing-class family, and based on 1961 prices as equivalent to 100 stood at 119.7 at the end of June. This was about seven per cent higher than at the same period last year. Food prices, which went up 5.9 per cent in the same period according to official statistics, are continually increasing. Tokyo The cost of living in Japan has gone up by leaps and bounds in the last few years —but the Japanese themselves are spending an everincreasing amount on luxury goods. With the year 1960 used as a basic 100, Japan’s consumer price index in July, 1964, stood at 126.1. In 1962 it was only 112.2, and in 1963 121.2. In the two years since 1962 the average urban householder's monthly bill has jumped from 39,339 yen (just under £4O) to 45,924 yen (almost £46) for such necessities and reasonable “luxury” items, amusements, cultural activities, tobacco and so on. Home-building costs in Japan have sky-rocketed since March, 1955. On a basis of 100 in 1955 building costs for a wooden home in March, 1964, averaged 187.3. Johannesburg The South African cost of living, after a period of relative stability, has in the last year been pressed quietly

upwards by a continuing economic boom, a strong flow of immigrants and prolonged drought in certain pans of southern Africa. The latest official cost-of-living index, based on 100 at October. 195 s is just over 109. Buenos Aires Argentina’s king-size joints of beef are getting smaller every day but the average man has some compensations —more television sets, cheap petrol, better clothes. This is the result of the slow but effective industrial isation of the country. Petrol, 90 per cent of which is locally produced, is cheaper in Argentina than most countries. One gallon (3.785 litres) can be obtained for 41.6 pesos—equivalent to Is lOd. Since the price has not been touched since March, 1963. its cost to the consumer has in effect dropped to under 75 per cent of other commodity levels.