Brad Olsen: Infometrics chief executive on food prices going up again thanks to eggs and dairy

Prices are soaring for food staples, with prices up 4.7 percent on a year ago.

Stats NZ data for October shows cheese, instant coffee, eggs and milk had some of the largest surges. 

Gas rose 14.4 percent and electricity almost 12 percent

Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen says fruit and vegetables are cheaper - but not meat.

"A couple of months ago, right, we were talking a lot about butter. Mince is now the new butter in a sense, given that that's increased, I think, $23 a kilo."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from newstalk zed B. Follow
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Cray and Bread.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Our food price is up four point seven percent in
the year of October. Melk cup thirteen and a half percent,
four hundred four dollars seventy eight a liter, Cheese up
thirty percent, eggs up eighteen and a half percent, almost
ten bucks a dozen. Now, instant coffee was up twenty
five percent. But that's discussing anyway, So who cares. Brad
Olsen inf Metric's principal economists with me. Hey, Brad, good afternoon.
So sur price is still going up.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, life is still pretty expensive. That the good news
is as we head into summer, you're seeing some areas
of relief, the likes of fruit and vegetables becoming a
bit cheaper as we get into that better growing season.
But look, as you're thinking of, you know, Christmas sort
of lunch or or dinner, I don't think you're going
to be wanting to put the likes of mince patties
or steak on the barbie or ething, given that those
have increased in fact a couple of months ago, right,

(01:00):
We were talking a lot about butter mince now the
new butter in a sense, given that though that's increased,
I think it's now twenty three bucks of kilo. For that,
your staples are still really expensive. They continue to go up,
so still pretty challenging for a lot of household.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
How are you saying go vegan?

Speaker 3 (01:15):
No, I'm saying maybe shop around, because while the likes
of beef and lamb and even fish has increased, the
likes of pork and chicken hasn't shifted all that much,
so that there's a little bit of option on the table.
The one that worries me, though, that we don't talk
about a lot, is the fact that electricity price inflation
is currently running it as fastest since nineteen eighty nine.
Like that stuff's really starting to hit households and you

(01:37):
can't avoid that.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Cost, right, So what does this do to the overall
inflation number? Before the end of the year, we were
going to hit three percent over three percent.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Well, we're there at the moment. We expect things to
come down, but that's more because yes, you've got the
likes of your food price inflation that's still running hot.
Electricity and similar as well. The challenge that I think
I'm finding when you look at the headline numbers, the
price of like a couch or your you know, fridge,
or a phone or similar are coming down. That's good,
but how many of those are we buying each week?
It's the really essential stuff that you're paying very, very

(02:08):
fre frequently. You are electricity, your food and similar that's
continuing to hit. So although headline inflation might be in
a better place going forward, the cost of living challenge
for households doing it day by day is still going
to be tough.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Fred, Thank you Brad Lson in for Metrics.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
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