{"id":235596,"date":"2026-01-16T01:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T01:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/235596\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T01:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T01:53:11","slug":"food-prices-drop-for-fourth-month-while-electricity-and-gas-costs-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/235596\/","title":{"rendered":"Food prices drop for fourth month while electricity and gas costs surge"},"content":{"rendered":"Stats NZ prices and deflators spokeswoman Nicola Growden said a Sunday roast lamb was cheaper for the month of December.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, the prices of vegetables that typically accompany roast lamb, such as onions, carrots, broccoli and potatoes, increased.\u201d<\/p>\n
On an annual basis, overall food prices increased by 4.0% in the 12 months to December 2025, after a 4.4% increase in the 12 months to November 2025.<\/p>\n
Higher prices for the grocery food group, up 4.6%, contributed the most to the annual increase in food prices, followed by meat, poultry, and fish, up 7.4% annually.<\/p>\n
The fruit and vegetable subgroup and restaurant meals and ready-to-eat subgroup were also both up 2.4% over the year.<\/p>\n
Prices for non-alcoholic beverages were also higher on an annual basis, up 3.6% in the 12 months to December 2025.<\/p>\n
Growden said olive oil was the biggest offsetting contributor to the overall increase. <\/p>\n
The average price for olive oil was $17.45 a litre in December 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cOlive oil prices were the lowest since March 2024. After increasing steadily in price through 2024, they are now 23.4% lower than March 2025, when one litre of olive oil cost $22.79,\u201d Growden said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSalad season was cheaper in December 2025 as prices for vegetables such as lettuce, cucumber, and avocado were all down as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking at the other categories, prices for alcoholic beverages were up 1.2% annually, but down 0.6% on a monthly basis, while cigarettes and tobacco products remained up 5.8% annually but fell 0.1% monthly.<\/p>\n
Rent and energy<\/p>\n
Existing rent prices, known as the stock measure of rental property, rose 1.3% annually in the year to December and increased 0.1% on a monthly basis.<\/p>\n
The flow measure of rental property, which indicates prices for new rentals or tenancies in the market, was down 0.3% on an annual basis but rose 1.5% on a monthly basis.<\/p>\n
Electricity prices rose 12.2% in the year to December (up 1.5% monthly), with gas prices also higher, up 17.5% annually and 1.9% monthly.<\/p>\n
Growden said that, since December 2021, electricity prices had risen by 27.3%, while gas had risen by 56.0%.<\/p>\n
In the transport group, petrol prices were 1.4% higher in the December year (up 0.1% monthly), with diesel prices following suit, climbing 4% annually (up 0.4% monthly).<\/p>\n
Domestic air transport prices were down 1.2% on an annual basis, but increased by 15.8% monthly.<\/p>\n
International air transport prices were up 6.6% annually and increased on a monthly basis by 32.9%.<\/p>\n
As for accommodation, domestic prices were up 4.9% on an annual and monthly basis, while international accommodation prices were up 14.7% annually, but fell 0.5% on a monthly basis.<\/p>\n
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.<\/p>\n
Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stats NZ prices and deflators spokeswoman Nicola Growden said a Sunday roast lamb was cheaper for the month…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[836,3225,95,138,139317,802,3105,7500,139318,38402,1686,13989,5904,564,2082,3232,71,16460,32739,4486,111,139,69,1523,12937,13421,1515,3755,6123],"class_list":["post-235596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-836","tag-according","tag-and","tag-business","tag-continual","tag-costs","tag-data","tag-december","tag-decrease","tag-drop","tag-electricity","tag-fell","tag-final","tag-food","tag-for","tag-fourth","tag-from","tag-gas","tag-marking","tag-month","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-prices","tag-stats","tag-surge","tag-third","tag-while"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}