New Zealand food prices rose in February as retailers cut back on discounting soda, fruit juice, and energy drinks.
The food price index rose 0.6 per cent to 1263 in February, and is up 1.5 per cent from the same month a year earlier, according to Statistics New Zealand. That was led by a 3 per cent increase in non-alcoholic beverages, followed by a 1.7 per cent rise in the price of meat, poultry and fish, and a 0.6 per cent gain in grocery food prices.
"Inflation is currently very benign, and will comfortably remain around the bottom half of the RBNZ's target band for most of this year," ASB economist Jane Turner said in a note. "We continue to expect the RBNZ to leave the OCR unchanged until December 2012."
Last week, the Reserve Bank played up a tepid inflation outlook for the coming year, after the consumer prices index unexpected shrank in the 2011 December quarter.
The price of chicken pieces climbed 11 per cent, and was another food group that saw the removal of discounting.