RETAIL PRICES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 165, 7 April 1919, Page 8

RETAIL PRICES

AND THE COST OF LIVING

GOVERNMENT STATISTICIAN'S FIGURES

The Government Statistician is nblo to record a slight fa.ll in retail prices for the month of February. The cost of living index number for Iho three food groups (groceries, dairy produce, ami meat) for February is 1522, as ajjaingt .1553 for January. The February number represents an increase of 42.24 per cent, on the number for July, I9U.

In issuing these figures, the Government Statistician mentions Unit the data for culculnting the rent index number are collected only half-yearly, and combining- in their proper porportimis (ho last ascertained rent index number (August, 1918) with the index llumber for the three, food groups, the war_ increase in fond and rents since July, liUj, » 28.98 per cent. It should Iμ noted, however that this increaso covers approximately only 51 per cent, oi the total domestic expenditure usually regarded as. constituting the "cost of living." The index numbers and the percentages of increase in the three food groups for the chief centres, comparing July, nU, with February, 1919, are as follow:— -•* Index Increase number, per cent. Auckland 1507 38.26 Wellington 1549 «.O3 Chrislchurch 1180 41.«» Dunedin •• 1522 46.07 It will be olfterved that although Wellington has. l ; ho highest prices, as revealed by the index number, its percentago of increase is less than that of Dunedin. This is due to the fact that the retail prices in July, 19U, were lower in Dunedin than in any other centre. The figures for rents show that Wellington occupies a most .unfavourable position. Wellington's rent index number is 180-1, compared with Auckland s 1)95, Christchurch/s 915, and Dunedin s 889. The Government Statistician quotes figures to show that certain foodstuffs (representing the assumed weekly consumption of a family), which would have cost 19s. <BJd. in July, 1914. cost 2Ss. Bjd. in January, 1919, and 275. Hid. in February, 1919. The importance of this small apparent reduction is minimised by the fact that it is due chiefly to the fall in the price of potatoes, caused by the marketing of the season's main crop.