N.Z. inflation rate 17 p.c.; fourth highest in O.E.C.D.

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34151, 12 May 1976, Page 3

N.Z. inflation rate 17 p.c.; fourth highest in O.E.C.D.

(N ZP A. Staff Correspondent) LONDON, May 11. The rate of inflation in New Zealand has already topped the 17 per cent estimated for the whole of 1976 by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

In figures just released in Paris, the O.E.C.D. estimated the rise in consumer prices for the 12 months ended March 31 at 17.2 per cent. This is the fourth highest inflation rate in the 24nation organisation. Last December, the O.E.C.D. forecast that New Zealand

would have the highest rate of inflation among its members — who comprise the Western world’s most developed nations — during 1976. The organisation predicted a rate of 17 per cent, exactly twice the forecast O.E.C.D. average. The 17.2 per cent rise for the year ended March shows the first increase since last November for New Zealand in the O.E.C.D.’s monthly sur-

vey of consumer prices. For the previous five months, the New Zealand inflation rate had been put at 15.7 per cent. The jump has put New Zealand ahead of the Irish Republic, Finland, and Turkey in the O.E.C.D.’s inflation table. Above New Zealand are Iceland (36.3 per cent), Portugal (22.8). and Britain (21.2). The O.E.C.D, says that the New Zealand mark is to the latest available figure, taking account of the delay in publishing official national statistics. For the last quarter of 1975 and the first three months of this year, the O.E.C.D. has listed the rise in New Zealand’s consumer prices at 1.4 per cent. For the 12 months ended March, the O.E.C.D. average increase fell to 9.1 per cent, against 9.3 per cent for the year to last February. The O.E.C.D.’s twice-yearly survey of economic trends published last December predicted that New Zealand would be the only member country where inflation would get worse instead of better in 1976. Rates fell The O.E.C.D. figures for the year ended March show that more and more countries are having success in reducing the rate of inflation. Countries where the inflation rate fell in annual terms, between February and March, include Canada, Japan, America, Australia, France, Germany, Britain. Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands.

Finland, Greece, Switzerland, and Turkey. In Britain the rate fell from 22.9 per cent to 21.2, and in Australia from 14 per cent to 13.4. Switzerland still heads the O.E.C.D.’s anti - inflation league with a further fall from three per cent to 2.5. Apart from New Zealand, other nations recording a rise in consumer prices were Italy, Austria, Iceland, Norway. Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.