HOUSEHOLD ACCOUNTS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 136, 6 December 1926, Page 8

HOUSEHOLD ACCOUNTS

FOOD GROUPS DECREASE

87 POINTS IN TWELVE MONTHS.

The "Monthly Abstract of Statistics '' just issued gives some interesting particulars of prices of commodities affecting household account*. Tho retail prico index (Dominion weighted average) for. tho three food groups a* at 15th October waa 1569 (one base: average prices in four chief centres -.uring the year 1909-13 equal to 1000), a decrease of 14 points since the previous month. This index number shows an increaso of 46.4 per cent, over that for July, 1914. The recent increase in the prico of sugar has accounted for the 9-pomt rise in tho index number for the groceries group. In the majority of towns the summer prices of milk aro in operation, with similar reductions in the prico of butter, although eggs show a tendency to increase in price as the Christmas season approaches—tho net result being that the index number for dairy produce has fallen 47 points. Mutton has been somewhat reduced in price, beef also but to a lesser-ex-tent, and this has resulted in a decrease of 20 points in tho index; number of meat prices. A comparison with indexes for October, 1925, shows tho following differ-ences:—-Groceries,: 2 points increase, mostly due to alteration* in sugar prices; dairy produce, a decrease of 96 points, again duo to earlier seasonal reductions in the price of milk; meat, a 192-points decrease. Meat had reached almost its peak prices last October; this year it is showing a general and continued reduction, The index number for the combined food groups showed a reduction of 87 points during the twelve months. Expenditure on food constitutes somewhat less than two-fifths of the expenditure of the average household. It is necessary, therofore, to take into account other groups of household expenditure in estimating price movements., Statistics regarding house rents, retail prices of clothing and drapery, footwear, furnishings, household ironmongery, and other miscellaneous items of family expenditure have therefore been collected as at 15th August, and, combined with the index for fuel and light (the October, 1926, price index for fuel and light on base: average of years 1909-13 was 1855, a decrease of 1 point over the corresponding figure for the previous month) for October, in their proper proportions, the resultant "all groups" price index showing a level of 62.3 per cent, over that for July, WW. It now takos 32s 4d, on the average, to purchase what 20a would purchase in j that month. j