New Zealand’s food prices increased annually in November, but decreased for the third consecutive month, Stats NZ data showed.

Restaurant and ready-to-eat meals had the highest year-on-year price increase of 7.5 per cent among food categories Stats NZ measured, followed by grocery food at 7.0 per cent.

Non-alcoholic beverage prices inched 5.8 per cent higher while fruit and vegetable prices rose 4.8 per cent. Meat, poultry, and fish prices had the least growth of 2.0 percent.

“The largest contribution to the annual change was grocery food, mainly driven by higher prices for fresh eggs, lollies, and peanuts,” said James Mitchell, consumer prices manager at Stats NZ.

On a month-on-month basis, food prices fell 0.2 percent in November, following decreases of 0.9 per cent in October and 0.4 per cent in September.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Grocery Commissioner Pierre van Heerden is urging supermarkets to step up and offer more significant savings for the Christmas season.

“We know this has been a particularly challenging year for Kiwi consumers with cost-of-living pressures, so I’m asking supermarkets to implement Everyday Low Pricing throughout the holiday season rather than the practice of frequently moving prices up and down – to help ensure Kiwi consumers are getting a genuinely good price when they shop for their groceries,” said the commissioner.

Van Heerden also reminded supermarkets to ensure accuracy of their promotions and not engage in any misleading advertising practices.