COST OF LIVING

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 March 1926, Page 8

COST OF LIVING

LATEST STATISTICS. (P*r Press Association.) WELLINGTON, March" 4. The Government Statistician reports that the retail price index, Dominion weighted average, for the three food groups, groceries, dairyproduce and meat, as at January lb, was 1652, involving a rise of one point as compared with the corresponding index for. the preceding month and showing a price level of 54.4 per cent", above tnat for July 1914, viz 1070. In the group a rise of 18 points has been occasioned mainly by a continuation in most towns of the usual seasonal rise in the price of potatoes. A tail in butter accounts for a drop of 7 points in the dairy produce group, while following the phenomenal increase in meat .recorded during the spring, culminating in an index number of 1574 in November last, tnar group has since fallen considerably, a drop- of 28 points being recorded in January. In January 1926 the index number for the three food groups showed a level 78 points higher than the . index number for the corresponding. month last year. All the food groups partake in this increase. The higher prices prevailing this year for flour, bread, and potatoes account for a rise of 35 points in the groceries group. The price. of meat shows a level 124 points above that for January, 1925, while a rise which is shared by practically; all items of dairy produce. accounts for an increase of 74 points in that group. Expenditure on food constitutes somewhat less than two-fifths of the total expenditure of the average New Zealand household. On the all groups basis there is indicated an increase for the retail price level of 62.8 per cent, over the level of July 1914.