Living costs increase for all New Zealand household groups

Wellington: Soaring prices continued to affect all household groups in New Zealand in the 12 months to December 2022, the country’s statistics department said on Thursday.
The cost of living for the average household, as measured by the household living-costs price indexes (HLPIs), increased by 8.2 percent in the 12 months to December 2022, Xinhua news agency reported citing Stats NZ as saying.
“Higher prices for housing, food, and transport were the main contributors to the increase across all household groups,” consumer prices manager James Mitchell said.
Each quarter, the household living-costs price indexes measure how inflation affects 13 different household groups, plus an all-households group. The consumer price index (CPI) measures how inflation affects New Zealand as a whole, Mitchell said.
He added that the all-households group or the average household represents all private New Zealand-resident households.
Annual inflation, as measured by the CPI, was 7.2 percent in the December 2022 quarter, while annual inflation for the average household as measured by the HLPIs was 8.2 percent.