Households hit by rising grocery prices

Research by the Reserve Bank has revealed that households are being hit by rising grocery prices.

The research published in the latest Reserve Bank Bulletin shows that prices for food, beverages and tobacco have increased by an average 4 percent each year since 1993, and are rising faster than the current inflation rate of 2.5 percent.

The cost of staples such as fruit and vegetables (up 4.1 percent per annum), dairy (up 4 percent per annum) and bread and cereals (up 3.8 percent per annum) all exceeded the average inflation rate of 2.7 per cent per year.

Christopher Zinn, from the consumer group Choice said the Federal Government must do something to address this issue and that there needs to be a way to regularly measure grocery costs and to investigate any sudden price hikes.

“If we had benchmarks and we could measure it, we could: one, ask why this is happening; and two, if possible, what can be done about it?”

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