Yoghurt and cheese drive food prices up

Food prices increased 0.4 percent in the September 2007 month, Statistics New Zealand said today.

The increase was mainly due to higher prices for the grocery food subgroup (up 0.8 percent).

Within the grocery food subgroup, the main contributors to the 0.8 percent increase were higher prices foryoghurt (up 10.2 percent), and cheese (up 4.9 percent).

The main downward contribution came from lowerprices for snack foods (down 2.2 percent).

The only downward subgroup contribution came from lower prices for fruit and vegetables (down 1.2percent) in the September 2007 month.

Within this subgroup, the main contributors to the decrease werelettuce (down 18.7 percent), cucumber (down 27.9 percent), and courgettes (down 21.8 percent).

The mainupward contributions came from higher prices for bananas (up 4.7 percent) and stone fruit (up 8.1 percent).

For the year to September 2007, food prices rose 3.4 percent.

The upward contributions came from higherprices for the following subgroups:

grocery food (up 3.6 percent), meat, poultry and fish (8.0 percent),restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food (up 3.7 percent), and non-alcoholic beverages (up 0.4 percent).

Theonly downward contribution came from the fruit and vegetables subgroup (down 1.4 percent).