THE COST OF LIVING

Taranaki Daily News, 13 November 1929, Page 15

THE COST OF LIVING

PRICE INVESTMENTS. The retail price index (Dominion weighted average) for the three food groups as at September 15 was 1570 (on tho base —average prices in the four centres during the years 1919-13 —1060), an increase of 3 points as compared with that for the previous month, and 46.7 per cent, over that for July, 1914 (reports the Government Statistician). Further increases in the prices of potatoes and onions, counteracted somewhat by slight reductions in sugar prices, have caused tho groceries index number to rise 3 points. Milk is now at the summer level in most towns and this reduction combined with . further decreases in egg prices prices has resulted in a fall of 44 points in the dairy produce index number. An upward move of 34 points in the meat index number is tho result of an increase in the price of all.classes of meat in most towns.

Expenditure on food constitutes somewhat less than two-fifths of the expenditure of an average household. In order to present a .more complete picture of movements in retail prices generally, statistics regarding the retail prices of clothing, drapery, and footwear, and miscellaneous items of family expenditure -are collected at quarterly intervals, and when combined with the indexes for food, rent, and fuel and light approximately 87 per cent, of the average household expenditure is represented. The September food and fuel and light index numbers, when combined with the August clothing,

drapery, footwear, rent, and miscellaneous items index numbers, give an “all groups” index 60.6 per cent, above tho July, 1914, level, so that it now takes £1 12s Id on the average to purchase what could have been purchased for £1 in that month. The whoisale price index number for all commodities for September showed a rise of 1 point over August. The various groups .of commodities comprised in the general index, except one, showed changes which tended to cancel out and result in little change in what is regarded as tho general wholesale price level. Tho more salient changes occurred in tho “agricultural produce” group, which •gained from 1692 to 1733 (mainly due to changes in prices for potatoes and onions), the “semi-manufactured animal products (not foods),” which increased from • 1250 to 1276, and the “leather group, where the index number receded from 1722 to 1690. Compared with September, 1928, the general wholesale price level which has remained fairly steady in 1929 with a rising tendency, shows A gain of 7 points (1557 to 1564). Apart from increases in the “agricultural produce” group from 1617 to 1733, and in the “meats” group from 1987 to 1442, the outstanding features in the price situation over the last twelve months has been the sharp fall in hides and leather prices, which has forced down the index number for the “semimanufactured animal products” from 1532 to 1276, and that for the “leather group from 1890 to 1690.