Living standards held at 1972 levels

Press, 1 September 1977, Page 2

Living standards held at 1972 levels

Staff reporter New Zealand’s standard of living—as measured by the quarterly survey of retail 1 trade—has for 12, months been held at 1972 levels. The Government Statistician’s estimate of retail turnover in the June quarter is 51246 M orj 51278 M when corrected for seasonal factors. Dividing | this total by population, and! correcting the result for’ price changes, the Government Statistician calculates | the "turnover per head ofi population, in constant De-: cember, 1974, S, seasonally corrected." at $27522. Although the quarterly trading estimates exclude several important components of consumer spending — notably on motoring and liquor from

I hotels, restaurant meals, and I other services — it is recog- . msed as perhaps the most . i comprehensive and up-to-date indicator of living standards. It comprises I nearly two-thirds of con- ; sumption expenditure as defined in the national income statistics. The followring table shows retail turnover as recorded , l in each quarter since the ’beginning of 1972 and the . ! turnover per head of population, at constant prices, j corrected: 1973— 1• Quarter ended Total Per

Although total turnover, as recorded (first column) has increased year by year — comparing each quarterly figure with the correspond-' ing figure for the previous! year — the greater part ofi these increases is attribut-' able to higher prices. The second column —i "Per capita, constant $” — represents a measure of the volume of each individual’s consumption. This series reached a peak in September, 1974. The latest figures — $274 in March and $275 in June — fall between the $273 in September. 1972, and the $277 in December of that year.

$M capita— constant 5 1972— | March 567 257 June 615 267 Sept 630 273 Dec. 745 277 1973— March 666 282 June 716 286 Sept. "48 292 Dec. 912 301 1974— March 791 304 June 850 307 Sept. 880 308 Dec. 1025 298

1976March M3 285 June 940 286 Sept. 983 289 Dec. 1199 290 1976— March 1009 277 June 1101 284 Sept. 1127 273 Dec. 1366 275 1977— March 1148 274 June 1246 275