KEY POINTS:
Trips to the supermarket continued to get more painful on the wallet last month.
Food prices leapt 1 per cent in May, Statistics New Zealand figures reveal today.
The Food Price Index was up 6.8 per cent in the past 12 months.
The latest increase was mainly due to higher prices for the fruit and vegetables subgroup (up 3.8 per cent), non-alcoholic beverages (up 2.6 per cent) and grocery food (up 0.5 per cent).
Within the fruit and vegetables subgroup, the main contributor to the 3.8 per cent increase was higher prices for vegetables (up 11.0 per cent), driven in particular by tomatoes (up 25.9 per cent), lettuce (up 34.5 per cent) and broccoli (up 37.3 per cent).
Fruit prices (down 6.1 per cent) made a downward contribution to this subgroup, driven by lower prices for mandarins (down 46.5 per cent) and kiwifruit (down 47.6 per cent).
The rise in prices for the non-alcoholic beverages subgroup mainly came from higher prices for soft drinks (up 2.3 per cent).
The grocery food subgroup, which rose 0.5 per cent, was driven by higher prices for a wide range of goods within this subgroup, and there was no significant individual upward contribution this month.
The most significant downward contribution came from lower prices for yoghurt (down 7.1 per cent).
Over the year all five subgroups recorded upward contributions, with the most significant coming from higher prices for the grocery food subgroup - up 11.8 per cent.
The main contributions within the grocery group came from higher prices for fresh milk (up 21.5 per cent), cheddar cheese (up 59.4 per cent), bread (up 13.9 per cent) and butter (up 80.1 per cent).
The remaining four subgroups recorded, in order of significance, the following upward contributions: restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food (up 5.3 per cent), non-alcoholic beverages (up 6.0 per cent), fruit and vegetables (up 2.5 per cent) and meat, poultry and fish (up 1.8 per cent).
- NZPA
