The General Consumer Price Index and Foodstuffs
79. The foodstuffs section of the General Consumer Price Index, on a seasonally adjusted basis, for the years 1971 to 1973 is shown in Table 26, and this also indicates a degree of stability in retail prices in 1971 and for much of 1972, and relatively rapid price increases towards the end of 1972 and during most of 1973. In the first nine months of 1973, retail prices of foodstuffs, reflected by the General Consumer Price Index, increased by 28% compared with 4% in the nine months to September 1972.
Foodstuffs Component of the General Consumer Price Index, 1971-1973
Table 26
(Sep 1963 Aug 1964-100)
Effect of Increases in Retail Prices on the General Consumer Price Index by Section, first nine months of 1973
Table 27
Section
Foodstuffs
Weight Increase Contri- in index in prices* bution
(%)
(%)
(%)
48.3
28.3
81.3
Housing Fuel and light
15.2
7.9
4.8
3.0
6.4
0.7
Alcoholic drink
and tobacco
3.3
4.8
0.7
Clothing and
footwear
6.2
11.8
2.8
Durable goods
2.1
15.9
1.5
Miscellaneous
goods
4.2
13.1
2.5
Transport and
vehicles
3.2
1.4
0.2
(Seasonally adjusted)
Services
14.5
8.3
5.5
1971
1972
1973
Jan
153
159
167
All items
100.0
19.7
100.0
Feb
145
157
179
* seasonally adjusted.
Mar
148
152
184
Apr
144
154
188
May
148
165
193
Jun
151
164
196
Jul
151
158
208
Aug
153
158
212
Sep
151
161
221
Oct
151
161
222
Nov
151
173
212
Import Prices of Foodstuffs
81. A very high proportion of Hong Kong's consumption of foodstuffs is represented by imports. Domestic production is significant only in the case of poultry, fresh vegetables and, in particular, marine fish.
Retained Imports as a proportion of Domestic Consumption* (quantities), twelve months to March 1973
Dec
155
172
214
Table 28
80. Bearing in mind that the foodstuffs sec- tion has a weighting of as much as 48.3% in the General Consumer Price Index, it will be clear that this very rapid increase in the retail prices of foodstuffs in the first nine months of 1973 made a significant contribution to the increase in the index as a whole at this time. In fact, as can be seen from Table 27, the contribution made by the increase in prices for the foodstuffs section in this period was far greater than those made by the increases for the other sections. For this reason the rest of this chapter is con- fined to a discussion of foodstuffs only.
Live pigs
Live cattle
Live poultry Fresh vegetables
Rice
Fresh marine fish
Fresh pond fish
Eggs
%
85
99
52
58
98
7
92
86
* retained domestic production plus retained
imports.
25