Transpower upgrade, food, building costs may mark otherwise tame second-quarter inflation

Transpower upgrade, food, building costs may mark otherwise tame second-quarter inflation
By Jonathan Underhill July 16 (BusinessDesk) - Higher electricity costs, as power companies hike prices to pay for Transpower’s grid upgrade, a jump in food prices and emerging pressure in building costs probably marked an otherwise tame pace of inflation in the second quarter. The consumer price index rose 0.5 percent in the three months ended June 30, unchanged from the first quarter, according to a Reuters survey of 16 economists. That would see annual inflation slow to 1.1 percent, near the bottom of the central bank’s 1 percent-to-3 perc...