Everyday supermarket prices remain stable - ACCC

A comprehensive survey of supermarket prices across Australia, conducted by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, shows everyday household price increases have remained stable at about 1.2% since the beginning of the year.

"It is difficult to draw the conclusion from this survey that there has been any substantial anticipation of the New Tax System in supermarket prices," ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels said today.

"The scope of the ACCC survey is substantial, covering monthly more than 300 supermarkets nationwide, with a product basket of more than 100 commonly purchased items.

"Additionally, the ACCC is undertaking a larger, periodic survey of about 450 items in more than 600 supermarkets nationally to monitor the general effects of the New Tax System on prices.

"These surveys are used by the ACCC to identify price trends and potential cases of price exploitation in the transition to the New Tax System. If such cases are identified, the ACCC will act."

"The ACCC survey is not directly comparable to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data as it uses different supermarket items and a different approach to the timing of price collections. However, the latest ACCC results show a pattern broadly consistent with the CPI trend in 1999-00.

"The ACCC figures show an average increase of 1.2% in the period from January-February to June 2000. For some purposes it is useful to exclude volatile items such as fruit and vegetables, fresh meat and seafood. In this case, if these items are excluded, the underlying figure shows an increase of 1.1%, a slightly lower result. On occasions the exclusion of such volatile items enables a better idea of the underlying trend.

The survey results are shown below:

ACCC Surveys	Jan-Feb to June 2000
Prices	Percentage of prices (%)
Prices Decreased	31.5 42.8 26.7
Prices Increased
Prices Stayed the Same
Weighted Average Price Increase	1.2
Excluding 'volatile' items	1.1

Media inquiries

• Ms Lin Enright, Media, (02) 6243 1108 or 0414 613 520

Release # MR 160/00
Issued: 30^th June 2000

The following table shows the percentage changes by sub-groups. The increases on fruit and vegetable prices are higher than average, largely due to seasonal factors.

Product Groups	Average change (%)
Cereal products	-0.2
Dairy & Related	2.3
Fresh Fruit & Veg	3.8
Household supplies	1.2
Meat & Seafood	0.1
Other Food