RETAIL PRICES

Otago Witness, Issue 3444, 16 March 1920, Page 24

RETAIL PRICES

THE COST OF LIVING. (Fnoja Oun Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, March 10. The index number for the three food groups for the month of January (dominion weighted average) is 1688 —an increase of 26 points as compared with the December number, and an increase of 57.76 per cent, compared with the number for July, 1914. The data from which the rent index number is calculated are collected only half-yearly, and if the last ascertained rent index number (August, 1919) is combined in its proper proportion with the index number for the three food groups, it is found that the war increase in food and rents since July, 1914, is 41.25 per cent. It is not practicable at present (says the Acting Government Statistician) to calculate index numbers to show the increase in retail prices over the whole of the domestic expenditure of an average household, but the three food groups and rent, in regard to which the above increase of approximately 41 per cent, has been taken, cover the most important and necessary items in ihe average domestic expenditure, and form more than half of the total With reference to the exceptional increase in the index numbers of retail prices of groceries for January, 1920, especially in the case of the southern towns, it should be explained that this is to a very large extent due to the high prices ruling for new potatoes in that month. This, of course, has also affected to a less extent the index numbers for the three food groups combined.