CPI

So the CPI numbers come out today and tell a fairly predictable tale. With the average price of petrol falling 18.2% against the previous quarter, and this forming a rather large portion of the average consumer's spending, the total CPI figure for the quarter is negative 0.3%. But if you strip out the change due to petrol prices (which is highly volatile at the best of times) then you would get a very different picture.

Lets get down to the nuts and bolts of living here.....food and alcohol. Lets say you go on a picnic down to the local park and stop in at the bottle-o on the way through. Yes, it is cheaper to get there, but fruit prices for the quarter are up 8%, take-aways up 1.5% and veggies up 3.3%. To give you an idea, if we annualise this then in nine months from now fruit will cost 36% more! And I can tell you that beer, spirits and wine have each fared not much better.

This rant of course has nothing to do with the fact that I dont drive a car and so get no benefit from falling fuel prices. Well maybe a little.

And as for the game-time post, the results will be posted soon. I am pleased to say though that of the 3 people who submitted a guess, one of you has got it correct.