Food prices rose 0.8 per cent in July

Food prices increased 0.8 per cent during July, Statistics New Zealand said today.

Rising prices for the fruit and vegetables subgroup was the main contributor to this, increasing 4.1 per cent.

The increase in the fruit and vegetables subgroup was mainly driven by higher prices for lettuce (up 24.6 per cent), cabbage (up 91 per cent) and broccoli (up 23.4 per cent).

Partially offsetting these increases were decreases in prices for stone fruit (down 29.9 per cent) and tomatoes (down 11.5 per cent).

Food prices increased 3.4 per cent for the year ended July, up from 2.9 per cent in the June year.

The most significant contribution to the annual increase came from higher prices for the fruit and vegetables subgroup (up 16.4 per cent).

The basket of goods that represent the movements for food prices has been reselected and reweighted and the index now uses June 2006 as its base month.

- NZPA