COST OF LIVING

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3305, 4 June 1931, Page 4

COST OF LIVING

COMPARISON WITH 1914-

PRICE LEVEL FALLING. Illuminating figures concerningth® cost of living level throughout N Zealand compared with July* upon which date recent coinpariso have been based, are contained ij l bulletin issued by the Department Industries and Commerce giving, a summary of finance, trade, and industries for the year ended March 3l» 1931.

The bulletin states that the ''Dominion retail price index for the three food groups—groceries, dairy produce, and meat—in February of this year was 29.7 per cent above that for July, 1914. This compared with 38.9 per cent" three months earlier. The index numbers of these three groups fell steadily throughout the year. Meat recorded further decreases during the first two months of the present calender year, but the index number for dairy produce registered an increase in February. -■ The decline in the index numbers of the combined group had therefore been brought about mainly by the more or less continuous fall in the prices of dairy produce and meat, particularly the latter. STEADY FALL RECORDED. A table is set out showing the percentage increase in the index numbers of the three food groups compared with July, 1914, from January, 1930, to February, 1931. This shows that the increase in January, 1930, was 45.7 per cent, as compared with 1914. A decline was recorded in each of the following months, the increase at the end of the calender year being 36.6 per cent, while by February it had reached 29.7 per cent. Taking all groups of commodities into account—that is to say, rent, fuel and light, clothing, drapery, footwear, and Miscellaneous, as well as the food groups—the percentage increases of price level at February 15, 1931, in each of the four centres, over the respective price levels in July, 1914, are shown as follows: Per cent.. Auckland 48.7 Wellington 55.3 Christchurch 48.4 Dunedin 46.6

An optimistic note regarding trade - is struck by the bulletin in a concluding summary of the conditions generally. “The adverse effects of the effects of the depression through which New Zealand has been passing for the last eighteen months or so are clearly revealed. These effects are reflected particularly in our trade and banking figures,” it states. “ BRIGHT SPOTS ” REVEALED. “ In spite of these unfavourable features there are, however, some bright spots. Firstly, our banking figures are not as unfavourable as they were at March 31, 1927; secondly, although the value of our exports has been considerably reduced, we are still able to show an excess of exports over imports of £1,226,977 for the year ended March 31, 1931; thirdly, the volume of production of our principal exportable products is being well maintained; and, finally, prices of wool and dairy-produce, particularly the former, have shown some improvement. in recent months. “ Some measure of encouragement can be gained, too, from the fact that the opinion is gaining ground generally throughout the world that the bottom of the depression has at last been reached and that an improvement', in economic conditions may be expected. “ Efforts have been made in New Zealand, as elsewhere, to bring about. a reduction in costs of production. Wages have been reduced in many cases, and in some instances the costs of other items, as, for example, interest and rent, have also been reduced to some extent. With the combination of these two movements —namely, an upward trend in prices and a definite downward movement in the direction of lower costs of production—future prospects appear somewhat brighter than they did at the commencement of the current season, and there seem to be reasonable V grounds for hoping that next season may be more profitable to all concerned than the 1930-31 season has been.”