Dairy and meat lovers are the biggest losers as food prices rise again
Food prices have steadily increased in March, with the monthly change driven by higher prices for grocery food and non-alcoholic beverages.
According to the latest Stats NZ Selected Price Index, monthly food prices increased by 0.5% in March compared with a 0.5% monthly decrease in February.
But on an annual basis, food prices were 3.5% higher than in March 2024.
Grocery food and non-alcoholic beverages had the biggest monthly impact on food price in March 2025, up 0.9% and 1.1%, respectively.
Higher prices for chocolate and yoghurt drove the increase in grocery food prices, while higher prices for instant coffee and soft drinks drove the increase in non-alcoholic beverage prices.
On an annual basis, butter prices are more expensive by 63.6% compared to March 2024, cheese is up by 20.4%, and milk is more expensive by 16%.
Stats NZ prices and deflators spokeswoman Nicola Growden said “The average price for a 250g block of chocolate was $5.99 in March 2025, that’s $1.60 more expensive than three years ago”.
Monthly fruit and vegetable prices fell by 0.3% compared with February, and were down 2.7% compared to March 2024, still the only food group to record lower prices compared to 2024.
Tomatoes and cabbage had the largest monthly price shifts, with their weighted average retail price up by 15.2% and 12.1% respectively.
Meat, poultry and fish prices were virtually flat for the month, growing by 0.1%, but on an annual basis they remain high, up by 5.3% compared to March 2024.
Likewise, restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food remained steady, also increasing by 0.1% for the month.
Alcohol monthly prices grew slightly in March, up by 0.2%, while monthly tobacco prices fell by 0.1%.
Monthly petrol prices fell in March, dropping by 2.1%, and are now 6.2% cheaper than in March 2024.
Monthly diesel prices were down by 2.3%. Annually, diesel prices were down by 10.6%.
Domestic air travel prices rose in March by 2.2%, while international air transport prices fell by 4% compared to February.
Domestic accommodation service prices fell 2.9% in March but international accommodation services increased by 8.8%.
After a few months of delay, Stats NZ has also been able to reveal the changes in rental prices.
The stock measure grew by 0.3% monthly, now 3.3% more expensive compared to last year.
The stock measure shows rental price changes across the whole rental population, including renters currently in tenancies.
The flow measure of rents captures rental price changes only for dwellings that have a new tenancy started in the reference month.
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Even Australians get it - so why not Kiwis???
“Ten years ago, if a heatwave as intense as last week’s record-breaker had hit the east coast, Australia’s power supply may well have buckled. But this time, the system largely operated as we needed, despite some outages.
On Australia’s main grid last quarter, renewables and energy storage contributed more than 50% of supplied electricity for the first time, while wholesale power prices were more than 40% lower than a year earlier.
[…] shifting demand from gas and coal for power and petrol for cars is likely to deliver significantly lower energy bills for households.
Last quarter, wind generation was up almost 30%, grid solar 15% and grid-scale batteries almost tripled their output. Gas generation fell 27% to its lowest level for a quarter century, while coal fell 4.6% to its lowest quarterly level ever.
Gas has long been the most expensive way to produce power. Gas peaking plants tend to fire up only when supply struggles to meet demand and power prices soar. Less demand for gas has flowed through to lower wholesale prices.”
Full article: www.theguardian.com...
If even Australians see the benefit of solar - then why is NZ actively boycotting solar uptake? The increased line rental for electricity was done to make solar less competitive and prevent cost per kWh to rise even more than it did - and electricity costs are expected to rise even more. Especially as National favours gas - which is the most expensive form of generating electricity. Which in turn will accelerate Climate Change, as if New Zealand didn’t have enough problems with droughts, floods, slips, etc. already.
New BEGINNERS LINEDANCING CLASS
Epsom Methodist church
12 pah Rd GREENWOODS cnr. Epsom
Monday 9th February 7pm - 9pm
Tuesday 10th February 10am -11am
Just turn up on the day
Time to Tickle Your Thinker 🧠
If a zookeeper had 100 pairs of animals in her zoo, and two pairs of babies are born for each one of the original animals, then (sadly) 23 animals don’t survive, how many animals do you have left in total?
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