The whatever thread

[harm_less]

Labour minister David Parker says a supermarket duopoly with possibly "too much market power" is one of the reasons produce growers are struggling to sell their product, while National's Nicola Willis is aiming blame for rising costs at the Government.

The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures released on Thursday showed annual inflation reached 6.9 percent in the year to March 2022, the highest it's been in more than 30 years. Food prices were up 6.7 percent, with fruit and vege soaring a huge 17 percent.


Ok the government and the opposition know this and what the hell is being done about it? Oh ok we will blame the virus oh and then we can blame the war.
Why cant the government blame themselves?

Interesting to consider that NZ's supermarket duopoly is a case of a lack of free market influence whereas the electricity sector's increasing price structure is largely a case of unbridled free market influences working in favour of the generators at the expense of consumers. Guess a happy medium needs to be found in both cases.

And our wee nation down here in the bottom corner of the Pacific is largely at the mercy of the big players internationally. We didn't invade our neighbours, we did make a pretty fine job of managing COVID but now China has locked down Shanghai due to that virus which will lead to even higher increases in imported goods and virtually all Western economies are reporting similar or higher inflation rates so why should we be any different. The government has relaxed fuel prices to ease the pain for many but realistically other actions that have been suggested publicly will only serve to distort the market which will then correct itself, as markets do, so are probably counterproductive in the medium to long term.