COST OF LIVING

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 112, 9 February 1928, Page 10

COST OF LIVING

LITTLE ALTERATION RECORDED

GOVERNMENT STATISTICIAN’S REPORT

According to the calculations of the Government Statistician, as shown in the latest Monthly Abstract of Statistics, there has been little alteration in the cost of living figures for the Dominion. He states that the retail price index (Dominion weighted average) for the three food groups as at December 15, 1927, was 1557 (on the base average prices in the four centres during the years 1909-13 equals 1000), an increase of 17 points as compared with that for the previous month, and an increase of 45.5 per cent, over that for July, 1914. The index number for the groceries group increased 50 points, this being caused by the general sale of the new season’s potatoes. The dairy produce index number recorded a fall ot 21 points; bacon and butter again showed a slight reduction in most towns. The meat group, the index number for which was 4 points greater than that for the previous month, had altered little; minor fluctuations took place in the prices of beef and mutton. Expenditure on food constitutes somewhat less than two-fifths of the expenditure of the average household. In order to present a more complete picture of movements in retail prices generally, statistics regarding the retail prices of clothing, drapery, footwear, and miscellaneous items of family expenditure are collected at quarterly intervals, and when combined with the indexes for food, rent, fuel, and light approximately 87 per cent, of the average household expenditure is represented The December price index for fuel and lighting on the base average of 1909-13 was 1877, the same as for November, 1927.

Combining the December indexes for food, fuel, and light with the November indexes foi the clothing and. miscellaneous groups and the August index for rent, the resultant all-groups index was 61.8 per cent, above that for July, 1914, so that it now takes £1 12s. 4d. on the average to purchase what could be purchased for £1 in that month. The following figures show the relative levels of food prices in four countries as compared with New Zealand: — Percentage of foodprices to New Zealand Country. food-prices, Aug.. 1927. Australia U 1 South Africa H 8 Canada 129 United States 141