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Food price inflation rate slows further in April

Posted in News

Annual food price inflation slowed further in April as food prices decreased 0.6% from March, Statistics New Zealand (Stats NZ) said on Tuesday morning. Annual food price inflation was 7.6% from April 2008, down from a high of 10.8% in September last year and 8.6% in March.

The latest figures will help reassure the Reserve Bank that its forecasts of slowing inflation will give it room to keep the Official Cash Rate at or below 2.50% over the next 18 months.

April was the first month in 2009 to record an overall decrease in food prices from the previous month.

Fruit and vegetable prices showed a decrease of 2% from March, but prices were still up 10% from the year before. Meat, poultry and fish prices fell 0.8%, but were still up 11.5% from April 2008, while grocery food prices fell 0.4% over the month and were up 6.7% from a year ago.

The 'restaurant and ready-to-eat meals' subgroup was the only one to experience a price rise from March, up 0.4%, with annual growth of 5.2%.

There were four items that showed price decreases in April from the year before, all in the grocery food group. Fresh milk prices were down 0.5%, cheese prices were down 8.2%, and egg prices were down 4.9%. Oils and fats prices were down 1.2%.

We welcome your help to improve our coverage of this issue. Any examples or experiences to relate? Any links to other news, data or research to shed more light on this? Any insight or views on what might happen next or what should happen next? Any errors to correct?

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