Food prices rose 1.9 percent in the January month, and were up 0.8 percent on a year earlier, Statistics New Zealand said today. While this is the largest increase in a single month since July 2011, food prices often rise in January months. “In January, higher food prices reflected more expensive grocery food, after falls in recent months. We also had seasonally higher fruit and vegetable prices,” prices manager Chris Pike said. The rise for grocery food (up 1.9 percent) was led by cakes and biscuits (up 5.4 percent), yoghurt (up 9.0 percent), and bread (up 2.3 percent). Olive oil (down 17 percent) was discounted in ... (full story)