Petrol and interest payments drive up cost of living

The three middle-to-high spending household groups experienced the highest increase in annual living costs of all of the 13 household groups. In the March 2022 quarter their cost of living was 6.9 percent higher than in the March 2021 quarter, Stats NZ said today.

Higher prices for petrol and interest payments contributed most to this increase.

The middle-spending household group spends about 5.2 percent of their expenditure on petrol so were most impacted by higher petrol prices. This compares with 4.6 percent for the average household and 4.0 percent for the highest-spending household group.

The highest-spending household group spends about 7.3 percent of their expenditure on interest payments. This compares with 4.6 percent for the average household and 2.0 percent for the lowest-spending household group.