BREAKFAST TABLE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 5 October 1926, Page 2

BREAKFAST TABLE.

PRICES GOING UP.

REyiBW OF PAST MONTH

A review l of the cost of living by the Gove riimeTiit Statistician (Mr. Malcolm Fraser) in the Abstract of Statistics indicates a rise of prices for -September over the previous mouth. Tllie retail price index (Dominion weighted average) for the three food groups as at August 15 was 1600 (on base: average prices in four chief centres during the years 1909-13 equals 1000), an increase of 3 points jsince the previous month and of 19.5 per cent, over that for July, 1914. A .sharp rise was recorded in the groceries group, the index number having increased by 25 points since the previous month. Increases in prices of Sour and bread are responsible for this movement.

Seasonal reductions in the prices of eggs and, in some towns, of butter also have caused a drop of 35 points in the index number for the dairy products group. Meat prices have remained practically (stationary } tlie index number for August showing an increase of 2 points. The index number for the groceries group is 4 points higher than that for the same month last year; the numbers for the other two groups being IS and 69 points' respectively lower than the .corresponding figures for 1925. The differences are inconsiderable except in the case of the meat group, in which prices have steadily fallen from month to month during the current year, with the single exception of between, July and August, when a very slight increase was recorded. The combined index number for the three food groups is 26 points lower than that for August, 1925. The expenditure on food constitutes somewhat less than two-fifths of the expenditure of the average household. It is necessary, therefore, to take into account other groups of househld 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 August 15, and, combined with the index for fuel and light for the same month in their proper proportions, the resultant “all groups” price index showing aJ level of 63.4 per cent over that for July. 1914. It now takes 32s Bi-d, on the average, to purchase what 20s would in that month. The outstanding feature of the retail price, statistics for August is the considerable increase recorded in the index number for house rents; the index, . which is computed in: February and August of each year, having risen by 78 points since February last. Consequently, despite the fact that decreases have been recorded in the groups food and clothing and drapery since last month, the “all groups” index shows an increase of 10 points. A collection of statistics regarding retail prices of clothing, drapery and miscellaneous items was made in May last, and the “all groups” index number • computed using these index numbers combined with the current numbers for food and fuel and light, and an interpolated figure for rent, was 1631, 3 points lower than the index for August. The August, 1926, price index for fuel and light on base; average of years 1909-13 was 1857, an increase of 2 points over the corresponding . figure for the previous month.—Do- » minion.