Inflation is predicted to hit "hellish" heights later this week after already seeing its biggest annual jump just months ago.
Filling your trolley is about to get that much more expensive - as if things weren't already hard enough. Our inflation rate is tipped to hit 7 percent later this week, the worst it's been since the late 1980s.
"It doesn't matter if it's 6, 7 or 8 - whichever way you slice and dice it, it's a hellish of a high number," economist Cameron Bagrie told AM. "Inflation is a thief that literally syphons money out of your pocket."
Pockets are already feeling the pinch. In the last 12 months, Kiwis have on average spent an extra $4000-$5000 on basics like food, rent and fuel.
Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr is crying out for more targeted fiscal policies. He said central banks grappling with inflation need support in the form of "more targeted effective fiscal policies".
"We're not in a great place right now," he said in a speech on Tuesday. "We need to tighten monetary conditions."
The National Party is calling on the Government to hit pause on what it calls wasteful spending, with Budget 2022 just around the corner and Finance Minister Grant Robertson giving himself $6 billion in new cash to splash.
"A credible Finance Minister would be doing all he could to rein in inflation right now," National's finance spokesperson Nicola Willis told Newshub. "It's driving a cost of living crisis for all New Zealanders."
But the Finance Minister says the reasons behind our cost of living crisis are imported from overseas - not our own spending. On Tuesday, he pointed the finger at the crisis in Ukraine and the global COVID-19 pandemic.
"We have to continue to be balanced in the way we approach Government spending," he told reporters.
"It is important we don't cut our nose off despite our face and take away funding that's really important.
"We're not going to reduce the price of food at the supermarket by reducing health spending."
Willis says Robertson has the power to do something about inflation.
"He's been trying to claim he can't do anything to impact inflation," she said. "Well, of course he can."
