Bill English National Finance Spokesman
13 September 2001
No relief in sight for householders, as food prices reach record highs
It's "all pain and no gain" for householders, as they face continuing rampant inflation in their grocery bills,
National's Finance spokesman Bill English said today.
Statistics released today show food prices leapt by 0.5% in August, following a 0.3% increase in July.
"Food prices are now 6.3% higher than a year ago, and nearly 9% higher than December 1999. That reflects a dismal
performance by the Government - which has done nothing to arrest big food price increases, and in fact has done nothing
which even attempts to achieve that aim.
"In the past year fruit and veggie prices have increased by 12.5%, while meat, fish and poultry prices have increased
11.9%. For household budgets which are under pressure that means healthy foods are the first to go.
"The annual food price increase of 6.3% is the largest since June 1990, in other words, the biggest food price increase
for more than a decade! And that previous high occurred due to a one-off increase in GST!
"Food is the most basic necessity, and the families which are suffering the most because of the 8.8% increase in food
prices since Labour came to office are those on low and fixed-incomes.
"Those people are now getting fewer services in health and education, while paying more for basic items like food,
petrol, electricity and travel.
"This Government has failed the people it promised to represent," Bill English said.
Ends