The cost of food continues to skyrocket as the latest data shows a 12 percent increase on February last year.
Stats NZ says this is the biggest annual hike since September 1989.
It comes as the New Zealand stock exchange has dropped 1.3 percent since the end of Friday after the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank sent US stock markets tumbling.
Māni Dunlop spoke to Infometrics director and principal economist Brad Olsen
