Annual NZ food price increase remains high at 6.8 percent

Te Whanganui-a-Tara - The annual rate of food price inflation increased between April 2022 and May 2022, Stats NZ says.

Food prices were 6.8 percent higher in May 2022 compared with May 2021, up from an increase of 6.4 percent in April 2022 compared with April 2021.

In May 2022, the annual increase was due to rises across all the broad food categories including: 

• grocery food prices increased 7.4 percent

• restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food prices increased 6.0 percent

• fruit and vegetable prices increased 10 percent

• meat, poultry, and fish prices increased 7.0 percent

• non-alcoholic beverage prices increased 2.7 percent

Grocery food was the largest contributor to this movement, with increasing prices for restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food providing the second largest contribution.

Average prices for grocery food items like yoghurt, milk, and cheese were all notably higher than they were in May 2021, Stats NZ consumer prices manager Katrina Dewbery says.

"The increase in restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food was influenced by rising prices of eat-in lunch/brunch meals at restaurants." 

Increase in cost of items like yoghurt drove up monthly increase in food prices.

Monthly, food prices were 0.7 percent higher in May 2022 compared with April 2022.

May 2022, restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food were 1.0 percent higher than in April 2022. This increase followed a 1.4 percent increase between March 2022 and April 2022, which was the largest monthly rise in over 10 years.

After removing regular seasonal impacts, food prices rose 0.8 percent.

“As the seasonally adjusted figure is similar to the headline figure, we can conclude that the price increases for the month did not have seasonal movement as a main factor,” Dewbery says.Annual food price increase remains high at 6.8 percent