Housing, Household Utilities Drive CPI

Embargoed until 10:45am – 25 October 2006

Housing and Household Utilities Drive Consumers Price Index

The Consumers Price Index (CPI) increased 0.7 percent in the September 2006 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today. The most significant contributions to the CPI this quarter came from higher prices for the housing and household utilities and food groups.

Housing and household utilities prices were up 1.9 percent in the September 2006 quarter, with the most significant increases coming from local authority rates (up 6.8 percent) and purchase of new housing (up 2.1 percent).

Food prices increased 2.0 percent in the September 2006 quarter, mainly due to price increases for vegetables (up 15.5 percent) and fruit (up 9.4 percent).

Over the 12 months to the September 2006 quarter, the CPI increased 3.5 percent, down from 4.0 percent for the year to the June 2006 quarter.

The basket of goods and services that represents the price movements for the CPI has been reselected and reweighted. The index now uses June 2006 quarter as its base quarter. Please see the Technical notes of the accompanying Hot Off The Press for more details.

Brian Pink
Government Statistician

ENDS

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