Book price increases

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32885, 7 April 1972, Page 10

Book price increases

Increases in the prices of books published in England that are sold in New Zealand are likely to average about 10 per cent a year, the president of the Booksellers* Association of New Zealand (Mr G. Tait) said yesterday. During the last few years there have been annual increases in the prices of English-published books sold on the New Zealand market of up to 40 per cent. These increases are not controlled by the Government price regulations, which restrict only the percentage mark-up by New Zealand booksellers and not the prices of imported books. “There are signs that the increases in the prices of English-published books are beginning to fall,” said Mr Tait. “The latest increase I know of is the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, which has gone up from $4.20 to $4.95 —an increase of about 17 per cent. This is about half the rate of increase that has been taking place in England during the last two or three years. “It looks to me as though English books will stabilise at an annual increase of about 10 per cent, which probably is in line with the rate of inflation,” he said.