New Zealand annual inflation rate, as measured by the Consumers Price Index (CPI), increased 4 percent to the June 2006 quarter, said Statistics New Zealand Monday.

It said that on a quarterly basis, the CPI increased 1.5 percent in the June 2006 quarter, following a 0.6 percent increase in the March 2006 quarter.

High oil prices are pushing consumer prices higher at their fastest pace in 16 years.

Aside from more expensive petrol, housing costs also rose, with prices for the purchase and building of new homes 5 percent higher than a year earlier. Food prices rose 2.9 percent.

If petrol prices had remained unchanged, experts said the rate of inflation would have risen only 2.9 percent.

It's the fourth consecutive quarter that annual inflation has stayed above the Reserve Bank's 1-3 percent target band.

In its June monetary policy statement, the Reserve Bank said it was not expecting inflation to get close to 4 percent until the end of this year.

Source: Xinhua