Highest jump in food costs in more than a decade

Highest jump in food costs in more than a decade puts Government under pressure

Monday, October 17th, 2022

Soaring food costs in every supermarket aisle continue to batter families and put more pressure on the Government as new figures show food inflation is at a 13-year-high.

Stats NZ figures released on Thursday show food prices jumped by 8.3% in September compared to the year before, while fruit and vegetables increased by 16%.

The Government has substantially increased benefits, the largest increases since the 1940s, but households continue to face soaring prices for basic essentials – a phenomenon National says means people are getting “pummelled” and has the Greens calling for an immediate boost to benefits.

“Basic produce has soared in the last year; broccoli up 44%, cauliflower up 53%, kiwifruit up 42% [and] onions up 40%,” National’s finance spokesperson Nicola Willis said. Read more

Additional reading

News category: New Zealand, News Shorts.

Let there be streams of Mass

Every Sunday, whoever is welcoming the gathered at my parish also welcomes those “joining us online,” before inviting us to stand for the processional hymn. Sometimes, I imagine that these folks are actually in the choir loft, where the camera Read more

Catholic church delivers some overdue fresh air to a gloomy city

It’s been a bruising April for many of Christchurch’s iconic landmarks, venues and events, teetering under the weight of their own financial turmoil. The Arts Centre’s management team continues to sound the threatening drumbeat of insolvency if the ratepayer doesn’t Read more

Richard Dawkins’ “cultural Christianity,” political theologies, and the Church of Pope Francis

Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist and ethologist and one of the most famous atheists in the world, announced just a few weeks ago that he is a cultural Christian: “I do think we are culturally a Christian country. I call Read more

In ‘Infinite Dignity,’ the Vatican defends people, not politics

Many people, and not only Catholics, are talking about the new Vatican document, “Dignitas Infinita,” or Infinite Dignity. It tackles complicated moral ideas, many of them further complicated by current political debates. But many commentaries misunderstand what the Vatican presented, Read more

CathNews New Zealand