The September quarter’s consumers price index (CPI) has delivered a rise of 0.3 per cent, the third consecutive quarterly rise of 0.3 per cent.
Statistics New Zealand reported that while prices for housing and household utilities rose one per cent, there were lower prices for household contents and services, which were down 1.3 per cent.
Falls were seen in textiles, furniture and whiteware.
Cheaper telecommunication equipment, predominantly cellphone handsets, resulted in prices being down 7.5 per cent, together with a drop of 1.1 per cent in the prices of telecommunication services.
Total communication prices fell 1.4 per cent.
Statistics NZ prices manager Chris Pike said “higher housing-related prices were responsible for about three-quarters of the rise in the CPI this quarter. The rest of the basket was relatively subdued.”
While food prices were flat overall, there was a relatively large fall for bread due to the discounting to about $1.00 of own-brand bread by supermarkets, Pike said. On the back of a mild winter vegetable prices rose ten per cent, compared with a rise of 20 per cent in the same period last year.
The annual change in the CPI has slowed, with an increase of one per cent in the year to the September quarter, following increases of 1.6 per cent and 1.5 per cent in the year to the June and March quarters, respectively.
Lower prices in consumer electronic goods contributed to audiovisual and computing equipment being down 9.8 per cent.
