COST OF LIVING

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 63, 14 March 1940, Page 17

COST OF LIVING

PRICE MOVEMENTS

RETAIL, WHOLESALE, AND

EXPORT

The retail' prices index (base: 1926-30 equals 1000) for the three food groups shows a decline of 29 points (from 1105 in December to 1076 in January), a fall of 105 points in the groceries group (due to lower prices for potatoes, particularly in the South Island) being counteracted in a minor degree by a rise of 10 points in the meat group, reports the Monthly Abstract of Statistics, for February. The index for the dairy-produce group remained stationary.

When the January indexes for food and for fuel aiM: li'lht are combined with the August, rent index and the November indexes for the remaining groups, an all-groups index of 1008 is obtained, which is 9 points below that for the previous' month and 60.5 per cent, above the 1914 ieyel. The increase in the all-groups index as compared with that for the last pre-war month (August, 1939) is 1.3 per cent.

The wholesale prices index (base: 1926-30 equals 1000) rose 5 points (from 1115 to 1120), a fal 1 of 14 points in the index for locally produced commodities (due to lower prices for potatoes and eggs) being more than counterbalanced by a rise of 18 points in the index for imported commodities, caused mainly by movements in prices of cornsacks and metai's.

The export prices index (base: 1909----13 equals 1000) at 1531 is higher by 121 points than it was in December, the movement oeing due principally to the influence of the wool group, this commodity now appearing at the value at which it has been acquired by the United Kingdom Government. Other considerable increases have occurred in the meat group (96 points) and the minerals group (113 points). The only group to exhibit a fall was that for hides, skins, etc. (120 points).