How global prices are affecting food prices

Higher fuel costs? Increased rent? Paying more for insurance, energy, health and transport? The rising cost of living affects businesses and individuals in a similar way. These higher prices are also occurring in countries right around the world, mainly because world prices of key commodities like grain, oil and metals have increased significantly.

The facts about food inflation

Each month, Woolworths calculates its own inflation rate on a whole supermarket-sized basket of goods. This measures the degree to which our customers' shopping basket has increased in price, taking into account the changing mix of goods our customers buy. We provide these figures to the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Inflation: When you compare Woolworths inflation rate on food items to the Customer Price Index for food, you can see that our figures track well below the CPI rate. The reason for this marked difference is that Woolworths Food Index is expenditure based, reflecting what customers actually buy in our stores at our prices. The CPI measures a fixed basket of goods over time.

Mapping the Woolworths Food Index against the ABS Australian Food CPI shows that the Woolworths price trend, while increasing, is significantly lower than the ABS Australian Food CPI and much less volatile.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics Data/Concept Economics.