New figures released by Stats NZ show food and housing costs were the main drivers of inflation for all household groups.
"Food prices increased by 12 percent for the average household, which was the main contributor for most household groups," consumer prices manager James Mitchell said.
Cost of living for the average household
The cost of living for the average household increased by 7.7% in the last year, following an 8.2% increase in the 12 months to December 2022.
Higher prices for interest payments, grocery food, rent, and fruit and vegetables were the main contributors to this increase.
Cost of living for beneficiary households
The cost of living for beneficiary households has increased by 6.7% in the last year due to higher prices for rent, interest payments and grocery food.
Rent makes up about a third of beneficiary household spending. This compares with 13% for the average household, and 5% for highest-spending households.
Māori households' cost of living
The cost of living for Māori households has increased by 7.5% in the last year.
The main contributors to higher living costs for Māori were interest payments, rent, grocery food, and fruit and vegetables.
In the last year prices for:
- interest payments increased 38%
- rent increased 5.4%
- grocery food increased 12%
- fruit and vegetables increased 21%
Highest-spending households
Highest-spending households' cost of living increased by 8.7% in the last year, the highest annual increase of all the household groups.
The main contributor to this was higher interest payments as highest-spending households spend proportionally more on interest payments than other groups.
Proportion of household spending on interest payments:
- all households was 4.7%
- highest-spending households was 7.4%
- lowest-spending households was 2.0%
Interest payments for highest-spending households increased 38% in the the last year.
Lowest-spending households' living costs
The cost of living for lowest-spending households increased 6.9% in the last year, also influenced by grocery food, rent, interest payments, and fruit and vegetables.
For lowest-spending households, overall food prices increased 12%. Grocery food prices increased 13%, and fruit and vegetable prices increased 21%.
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