New Zealand food inflation lowest since September 2018

Annual food inflation in New Zealand has eased to 0.2% in May from 0.8% in April, data by Statistics New Zealand showed.

It has pointed to the smallest increase in food prices since September 2018.

Prices of fruit and vegetables plummeted 11.4% year-on-year in May, following a 1.1% drop in April.

In addition, prices of meat, poultry and fish decreased for the first time in more than three years in May, by 1.2% YoY.

On the other hand, cost of restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food (4.8% YoY versus 0.1% YoY in April), grocery food (1.3% YoY versus -0.6% YoY in April) and non-alcoholic beverages (2.7% YoY versus 1.4% YoY in April) increased.

The NZD/USD currency pair settled 0.44% lower at 0.6140 on Friday. For the week, the major Forex pair went up 0.64%, as it reversed a loss from the preceding week.