Price Index News: Short stories

2012

• Red, ripe, and really versatile: tracking tomato prices in the CPI (January 2012)
  Tracks price movements, history in the CPI basket, and spending patterns for tomatoes and processed tomato products.
  
  
• Wool at a glance (January 2012)
  A pictorial summary of how wool and sheepmeat exports have fared over the 50 years to 2010.
  
  
• Off the sheep's back: a look at historical wool export prices and volumes (January 2012)
  A detailed look at how prices and volumes have changed for wool and sheepmeat exports. 

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2011

• Bigger, safer, better: tracking retail and quality adjusted new car prices in the CPI (October 2011) 
  Tracks retail and quality adjusted prices for new cars from 2001 until 2011.
  
  
• Trimmed mean inflation excluding GST rise (October 2011) 
  CPI trimmed means and weighted percentiles with prices processed at 12.5 percent GST.
  
  
• A trip to the flicks: watching cinema admission prices in the CPI (July 2011) 
  Tracks cinema admission prices over the past six decades.
  
  
• Sure to rise: tracking bread prices in the CPI (July 2011) 
  Tracks changes in bread prices over the past century.
  
  
• Tracking milk prices in the CPI (April 2011) 
  Tracks retail milk prices from the 1890s to February 2011.
  
  
• Running hot and cold: tracking non-alcoholic beverage prices in the CPI (April 2011) 
  Tracks changes in non-alcoholic beverage prices over the past three decades.
  
  
• Retail fish prices, 2005–10 (April 2011) 
  How retail fish prices have tracked from 2005–10.
  
  
• Impact of GST on prices collected for the CPI (April 2011)
  Information about how the tens of thousands of individual prices collected for the CPI changed when GST rose from 12.5 to 15 percent in October 2010.
  
  
• The chilling facts about ice cream (January 2011) 
  Tracks changes in ice cream and ice block prices over the past three decades.
  
  
• Price and quality both matter: differences between unadjusted and adjusted labour cost index series (January 2011) 
  An analysis of the distribution of changes in the pay rates used to compile the unadjusted labour cost index.

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2010

• Slicing and dicing meat and poultry prices (October 2010)
  Tracks changes in beef, lamb, and poultry prices over the past three decades.
  
  
• Flying here and flying there (October 2010)
  Tracks changes in domestic and international airfares over the past three decades.
  
  
• Fifty years of television in New Zealand (July 2010) 
  Tracks the changing price of television sets over the past five decades.
  
  
• How GST affected retail sales in the 1980s (July 2010) 
  The impact on retail sales when GST started in 1986 and went up in 1989.
  
  
•  The ups and downs of the CPI (April 2010)
  The impact over recent years of items that increased and decreased in price.
  
  
• Dealing with size changes in the CPI (April 2010) 
  A look at how product size changes are dealt with in the CPI.
  
  
• Retail fish prices and the fish monetary stock account (April 2010)
  How retail fish prices have tracked over the past five years and an account that values the commercial fish stock.
  
  
• Seasonal price fluctuations for fresh fruit and vegetables (January 2010) 
  Of every $100 spent by households on food, about $14 is on fruit and vegetables, which fluctuate in price during the year.
  
  
• Christmas dinner cost a dollar or two less (January 2010) 
  Christmas dinner cost about $48.80 in 2009, compared with about $50.50 in 2008.

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2009

• Dairy prices dip after soaring to unprecedented levels (October 2009) 
  Milk, cheese, and butter prices fell in 2009 from their 2008 peaks.
  
  
• When times are tough, wage growth slows (October 2009) 
  Since the early 1990s, there have been three instances where domestic and international events have resulted in relatively low wage rate growth.
  
  
• A comparison of household spending patterns based on the 1980 and 2008 CPI baskets (October 2009) 
  How household spending patterns have changed over the past three decades.
  
  
• We're paying more for milk but less for eggs (July 2009)
  How food prices have changed over the past 50 years compared with overall inflation.
  
  
• ANZ's experimental monthly inflation gauge (July 2009)
  An inflation gauge that tracks non-tradable (or domestic) inflation.
  
  
• The rise and fall of traditional home baking (April 2009)
  The relative importance in household food budgets of flour, eggs, sugar, and butter has declined over time.
  
  
• Shoppers prepared to pay more for premium food products (April 2009)
  A comparison of the prices of standard and premium food products.
  
  
• Margarine use spreads at butter's expense (January 2009)
  Spending on butter, as a percentage of spending on butter and margarine, declined from 79 percent in 1975 to 44 percent in 2008.
  
  
• Watching the box: from consolettes to flat panels in five decades (January 2009)
  Tracks the changing price of television sets over the five decades to 2009.
  
  
• Delving into discounting (January 2009) 
  Delving into advertised discounts for some big-ticket items and consumer electronics.
  
  
• Employer KiwiSaver contributions and the labour cost index (January 2009) 
  A look at the impact of KiwiSaver employer contributions on the June 2008 quarter LCI superannuation index.
  
  
• Labour Cost Index (all labour costs): June 2008 quarter results (January 2009) 
  An overview of results.

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2008

• Fancy cheese flatter than family block (September 2008)
  Cheese prices rose 42.3 percent in the year to July 2008, with cheddar rising more than camembert.
  
  
• Lighter lettuce leaves hole in hip pocket (September 2008)
  In winter, lettuce prices expand while sizes shrink.
  
  
• The rising cost of food in New Zealand (July 2008)
  Food prices rose 5.1 percent in the year to the March 2008 quarter.
  
  
• Grapes, hops, and alcopops (July 2008)
  Nearly $5 out of every $100 spent by households is on alcoholic beverages.
  
  
• Tracking changes in digital cameras (April 2008)
  CPI digital camera price collection practice, and how the product sample has changed over time to reflect increases in pixels.
  
  
• Annual leave entitlements and the labour cost index (January 2008) 
  Initial impact on the LCI of the increase in minimum annual leave entitlements.

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2007

• The price of fish (October 2007) 
  A look at the range and price of fresh fish species based on CPI data for 2005.
  
  
• Water, wind, and kilowatts (October 2007) 
  How the electricity industry operates and how prices have changed.
  
  
• How petrol prices have tracked since the 1980s (April 2007) 
  Over 25 years to 2006 petrol prices rose 168 percent compared with 254 percent overall for the CPI.

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