RETAIL PRICES

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 294, 7 September 1932, Page 14

RETAIL PRICES

Dairy Produce and Meat BELOW 1914 LEVEL An interesting feature of the retail price statistics for July, reports the Government Statistician, is the fact that the Dominion index numbers for both dairy produce and meat are below the corresponding figures for 1914; retail prices of dairy-produce being, on the average, 1 per cent., and of meat 3.6 per cent., below 1914 prices for these groups of commodities. Food prices generally averaged 8.3 per cent, above 1914 prices. The general wholesale price index number for July is 23.4 per cent, above the 1914 index; imported items included in the index number averaging 30.8 per cent., and locally produced items 17.9 per cent, above 1914 prices. The export price index number for pastoral and dairy produce fell by 5 points in July, as compared with June, the recent increases in butter and cheese prices being more than offset by reductions in the prices received for frozen meat. Export prices generally have fallen by 12 points since June, the index numbers for agricultural produce and minerals having fallen considerably In addition to the meat index number.

The index number of market prices of ordinary shares rose by 34 points, or 5 per cent., in July, as compared with the June figure.