Liam Dann: NZ Herald business editor at large on food prices falling in October

Monthly food prices fell 0.9 percent in October compared with September, according to figures released by Stats NZ today.

The largest contributor to the fall was vegetables, down 7.2 percent. But a rise in fruit prices, up 0.6 percent, partly offsets that.

NZ Herald business editor at large Liam Dann explains what this means for the state of the economy - and inflation.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Liam Dan is The Herald's Business editor at large. Liam, Hello,
what's going on with the monthly food prices? Then?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, sort of sort of good news. I mean, you know,
it's in case, it's not rocket science. It's October and
vegetables got cheaper. But broadly speaking, the food prices were
down a bit or flat, which is good news because
the rest of the inflation story is catching up. All

(00:27):
that non tradable inflation is catching up, so the economists
are quite happy about that. Looks like we will be
on target to hit the inflation target around two percent, So,
you know, look broadly good news. But I just did
notice a little caveat there that the dairy prices are
starting to creep up. So you know, now this is
weirdly a good thing for New Zealand, right, But it

(00:48):
just means watch that block of cheese price because I
can guarantee people will be complaining about it in the
coming months as the dairy farmers go about the business
of possibly saving the economy.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Are we all settled on a fifty basis point cut
this month rather than seventy five?

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Looks looks looks like it, I think I said to you,
I thought they'd go seventy five a few weeks ago,
but nobody's picking that anymore. The unemployment came in a
bit better than expected, and then of course our dear
friend Donald Trump is expected to do a whole bunch
of policies. It has the markets pushing bond yields up,
which means interest rates around the world rise, and so

(01:27):
that's a little bit more upward pressure. So I don't
think we're going to see anything other than fifty. I mean,
they couldn't go less than that. We've still got all
the recessionary problems, but seventy five does look to be
off the table.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
I good to talk to you. Thank you, Liam, really
appreciate it. Liam dan Ol Jesus Editor at Large.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
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