We make regular use of this to see how much the ever-growing KCDC rates + water charges impost on Kapiti households has increased above the rate of inflation, but it’s useful to see a lot of other comparisons, too.
It has six categories: general CPI, food, clothing, housing, wages and transport. Obviously, it covers the whole country and some things will differ a bit from region to region, but it’s still very good.
You simply enter the starting quarter in any year and compare it with a quarter in any other year.
For general CPI you can go back as far as 1862. For the other categories, somewhat later on. For example, the earliest year available for wages is 1961 and for housing, the following year.
The real shockers come, as expected, in comparing the growth in the cost of housing relative to the growth in wages. Since 2000, for example, the first has gone up 332% while second has gone up 68%.