$12 lettuces the tip of the iceberg as RBA moves on cost-of-living pressures
The Reserve Bank is likely to get on the front foot and implement the first back-to-back interest rate hike in 12 years on Tuesday to contain consumer price outbreaks and inflation.
CommSec senior economist Ryan Felsman said he believed the RBA would adopt a gradual approach to lifting the cash rate across its monthly meetings this year.
“For the 35 per cent of Australians that have a mortgage, this will be a challenging period,” he told Liam Bartlett on 6PR Mornings.
“The key focus at the moment is cost of living measures, it’s certainly an issue around the world at the moment, not unique to Perth or Australia generally.
“We have seen vegetable prices rise quite sharply, shoppers are paying around $12 a head for iceberg lettuce.”
Bartlett said a pair of shoppers (pictured above) at a WA Coles store were spotted stripping the outer leaves of iceberg lettuces, priced at $5.50, and filling their trolleys with them.
James Longstaff posted vision of the incident to his TikTok account on Sunday, with more than 850 comments in the first 24 hours.
@longie69
“It’s obviously common practice for people to remove the limp leaves from a lettuce, that they’re planning to buy, and you put them in the bin provided by the store, right?” he said.
“But this couple were taking the practice to the next level, going through every lettuce on display to strip the leaves and then putting it in their basket.”
Press PLAY below to hear Felsman and Bartlett discuss the rate rise strategy and grocery price increases