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Sue Chetwin: Grocery Action Group says StatsNZ's inflation figures are higher than they should be · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Off the back of the food inflation figures on Friday,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: food Stuffs has come up with an interesting comparison. Stats
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: in z reported five percent increase in the edit two July.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: I know, hard to swallow, hard to say, but food
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Stuffs is reporting a three point four percent increase year
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: on year. They argue they have a clearer grasp on
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: grocery prices. They say stats in Z is including restaurant
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: and takeaways in their reporting. Soud Chetwyn is with the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Grocery Action Group, which is with us this morning. Hey, Sue,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: good morning. What do you reckon spin or do they
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: have some merit in what they're saying.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Look, I think that it's interesting statistics, and you know,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: it's it's good to have them, But to me, it
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: really is spin stats in New Zealand. And I've been
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: doing these figures for a very long time, and food
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Stuff is producing them when they think that they might
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: benefit them. You know, they are under the gun at
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: the moment because of the very high prices that Tiwis
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: are paying for groceries, and so they come out with
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: statistics like this, and of course, you know you have
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: to say that gst is on is on food in
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: New Zealand and isn't in some of the other comparison
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: countries like the UK and Australia. But you know, there's
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: research around that shows that even taking that into account,
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: that we are still paying too much for groceries here.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: So I don't think it. I don't think it does
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: food stuff so much good to do stuff like this
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: in some respects because I just don't think. I think
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: here even more sensible than that, And they probably don't
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: believe it.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: But.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Do you.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: But to be fair to them, I mean they get
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: hammered day in, day out. These guys are the reason
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I can't afford to feed my family. And they'd make
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: some just reasonable points about you know, harsher winter and
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: shopping seasonally and as you say the gest I mean,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: these are valid things.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Oh look absolutely, you know there has been a harsh winter,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: stops seasonally. All of those things are correct. But the
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: reality is that we still have, you know, a duopoly
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: in New Zealand. We have food stuff which is increasing
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: its hold actually and and we have two reports from
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: the Grocery Commissioner showing that things are tough. The barrier
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: to entry for us a competing supermarket is probably too high,
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: and that's why we don't have competition here, and that's
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: why we have high prices. It's not much more difficult
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: than that. And food stuff might be giving us all
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: this advice, but the fact of the matter is there
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: making excessive profits. So if they brought the price of
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: their food down a little bit, they would still be
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: making profits.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Spend a little less on PM maybe you reckon see hey,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: thanks thanks times Shipwin, who's for the Growth Reaction Group.
• 3:03
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• 3:06
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• 3:09
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