Prices are soaring for food staples - with prices up 4.7 percent on a year ago

Stats NZ data for October shows cheese, instant coffee, eggs and milk had some of the largest surges.

Gas rose 14.4 percent and electricity almost 12.

Infometrics chief executive, Brad Olsen, says fruit and vegetables are cheaper - but not meat.

He says a couple of months ago, we were talking a lot about butter - but now mince is the new butter, at about 23 bucks a kilo.