And on a positive note for families struggling with the food bill come the food price index data!!

Food prices are down for the third consecutive month, this time by a whopping 1.5 percent on September.  Over the last three months food prices have fallen by 3.1 percent.  However, even with this fall, food prices are still 2.0 percent higher than they were a year ago.

Looking closely at the data, the major decrease was again in the fruit and vegetable subgroup, which was down 4.6 percent on the previous month.  Thankfully, the meat, poultry and fish subgroup has turned (down 3.2 percent), and the sticky upward grocery subgroup was down 0.4 percent.

Over the year, the 2.0 percent isn't too bad considering it is the lowest annual increase since the year to May 2006.  As expected, grocery food is the major culprit (up 2.7 percent).  Interestingly non-alcoholic beverages is the next major contributor to the increase (up 9.8 percent).  The fruit and vegetable subgroup is the only one where prices are down on the previous year by 6%.

We would expect that food prices remain subdued in the current economic climate and hopes that the other climate (the weather) stays fine to keep those fruit and vegetable prices down.

On the month, lettuce, chicken and lamb were the main contributors to lower prices.  Wellington's Kebab shop owners are probably smiling a bit more now with slightly more profit in their pockets (my favourite is the large mixed kebab with hummus, garlic yoghurt, tomato sauce and three stripes of hot sauce from Daniels Fine Foods on the Terrace).  But if you dont live in Wellington here is a recipe for lamb kebabs from my good mate Jamie.