Now that fuel prices have come down, will food prices follow?

[arj127]

Whats your thoughts?

[Manxman]

Whats your thoughts?

My thoughts: anyone who thinks food prices will come down, is smoking something slightly less legal that cigarettes.

The falling fx rate will deal to any possible fuel price decrease. Plus, food is (generally) not a discretionary item, therefore it's not possible to avoid consuming it thereby forcing prices back down - just ask Sue Bradford (who - in order to avoid potential libel action - is a thoroughly nice bloke by all accounts).

[Nagash]

Well, fuel prices haven't exactly gone down..

They're still higher then ever before, just down from what they used to be recently. So people are happy to pay this new price after they've had a taste at what it COULD be. They'll go back up sooner or later, then down a wee bit and everyone will be prepared to pay that price and so on.

Same will happen for food prices I reckon, they'll climb and climb just to get people scared. Then drop a wee little bit and level out for a short time so people are happy to pay that price. Then it'll climb again!

Things are constantly getting more expensive.. can't see that changing ever.

[puddytat]

People can get away with cutting down on fuel usage, but we all gotta eat...I read somwhere that to keep up with population growth, that by 2030 we'll need to produce 120% more food than we are now....

[imne1]

We're flat out lied to. Our fuel comes from south east asia and the united arab emerites, the prices we pay should theoretically have sod all to do with US dollar/price but the oil companies use that line anyway. Also NZs own oil production has the potential to supply 60% of our domestic needs and yet all that oil is EXPORTED.
As for food, we're trapped in a choice been a duopoly - chain A or chain B but the same overinflated prices due to a lack of competition. Add fuel to that fire by charging export prices for domesticly produced goods like fonterasshole does. I think we should all start demanding export prices for our labour. I can export myself to OZ or the UK, Canada, US etc etc where my labour is worth substantially more, so I feel my employer should pay me at that rate. Maybe THEN i can afford to buy some cheese. Alternatively the govt could grow some balls and legislate a fixed limit on how much above cost markup producers can charge domestically, but that will never happen either.

[slofox]

It's a plot I yell you! A plot a plot A PLOT!!!!!!

[Forest]

We're flat out lied to. Our fuel comes from south east asia and the united arab emerites, the prices we pay should theoretically have sod all to do with US dollar/price but the oil companies use that line anyway. Also NZs own oil production has the potential to supply 60% of our domestic needs and yet all that oil is EXPORTED.

Oil is traded internationally in USD. All of our oil imports are paid for in USD.

Potential production is meaningless because NZ's oil is relatively expensive to extract. There's no real incentive to develop domestic production without government subsidies (and that simply shifts the additional cost from consumers to tax-payers).

Our domestic oil production is about one third of our total consumption and our oil exports are equivalent to around 22% of our total consumption.

[Murray]

So fuel has nearly halved in price from its peak. The dollar has devalued from about $usd0.70c to $USD0.60c. I would have thought there would have been a serious drop in petrol prices. But HELLO, stuff all if anything. I think the Govt want higher prices (higher taxes, higher GST)

WOTARIPOFF

[portokiwi]

Fuel will go up..... Then food will go up again..... Then fuel will go up again.

[Usarka]

Wheres the option for "how the fuck would i know i'm not a bloody economist"?

[slofox]

So fuel has nearly halved in price from its peak. The dollar has devalued from about $usd0.70c to $USD0.60c. I would have thought there would have been a serious drop in petrol prices. But HELLO, stuff all if anything. I think the Govt want higher prices (higher taxes, higher GST)

WOTARIPOFF

Errrrr I think maybe the OIL COMPANIES want higher prices....they are independent of govt here.....(= do what they %#$%(@*^!! want)

[Murray]

Errrrr I think maybe the OIL COMPANIES want higher prices....they are independent of govt here.....(= do what they %#$%(@*^!! want)

I thought they now had a watchdog looking over them or what they refer to as a "limited monitoring service". I suppose that means its got no balls

http://www.med.govt.nz/templates/Con...____20094.aspx