New Zealand inflation rate & the cost of living
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) tracks what New Zealand households pay, and its annual change is the country's headline inflation rate. When inflation runs ahead of wages, purchasing power falls, even if your pay packet grows.
$100 of goods at the start of 2020 costs about $130 today.
Annual inflation rate, 2015–present
Consumer Price Index, year-on-year percentage change, quarterly
*Click on the indicator key to hide or show indicators
Tradable inflation reacts fastest to the exchange rate and shipping costs. Non-tradable inflation is domestic and stickier, and it's the one the Reserve Bank watches most closely for how long high inflation might last. The Ukraine war's shock to global food and energy prices shows up fastest in the tradable line. The dashed band is the Reserve Bank's 1-3% target for the CPI line specifically, not for tradable or non-tradable inflation individually.
Annual inflation is currently 3.7%, down from the 2021 peak of 5.9% and still above the Reserve Bank's 1–3% target band.
For overall CPI inflation, the goal isn't 'as low as possible': the Reserve Bank's legislated target is 1–3% a year. For tradable and non-tradable inflation specifically there's no official numeric target, but persistently high non-tradable inflation is the bigger warning sign since it reflects sustained domestic demand pressure.
What everyday groceries cost
Average price across New Zealand stores each month, from Stats NZ's food price survey. These are averages across brands, stores and regions, not the price at any one shop.
*Click on the indicator key to hide or show indicators
These are real prices in dollars, averaged across supermarkets and other stores, so you can see what a block of butter or a dozen eggs costs now against any month back to 2006. A line that jumps on its own usually means something happened to that one product rather than to prices in general. Eggs nearly doubled between mid-2022 and early 2024, as farms phased out conventional battery cages (banned from 1 January 2023) and supply fell short. And because New Zealand sells most of its dairy overseas, butter and cheese largely follow world dairy prices. For how prices are moving overall, see the annual inflation chart above.
Since the start of 2020: eggs +92% (now $8.60), bread +76% (now $2.29), butter +41% (now $7.70), milk +40% (now $5.09), cheese +37% (now $13.29), takeaway coffee +34% (now $5.24). Overall consumer prices rose +30.0% over the same time.
Grocery prices should rise slowly and predictably, at roughly the pace of wages, so a normal week's shop keeps costing about the same share of a pay packet. One item jumping isn't a crisis on its own if the rest stay steady - what hurts households is everyday staples all rising faster than pay at once. The 'Am I better off?' calculator shows how your own pay has kept up.
What this means
- The CPI measures the change in prices of a fixed basket of goods and services. It does not measure the absolute cost of living, and it does not fall when inflation eases: it rises more slowly.
- Tradable inflation covers goods and services that compete internationally (food imports, fuel, electronics). Non-tradable inflation is domestic (rents, rates, local services) and tends to be stickier.
- The Reserve Bank targets 1–3% annual inflation. Above-target inflation usually brings higher interest rates, which flow through to mortgages and rents.
CPI, annual inflation, tradable and non-tradable inflation, and grocery prices are all live from Stats NZ. Grocery prices are the monthly weighted average prices Stats NZ collects for its Food Price Index.