Period-specific information: June 2019 quarter

Reference Period

The information in this release is compiled from data collected in the quarterly Local Authority Survey run in the June 2019 quarter.

Tables

1. Local authority statistics, seasonally adjusted income
2. Local authority statistics, seasonally adjusted income, percentage changes
3. Local authority statistics, actual income
4. Local authority statistics, seasonally adjusted expenditure
5. Local authority statistics, seasonally adjusted expenditure, percentage changes
6. Local authority statistics, actual expenditure
7. Local authority statistics, actual income, revisions to previously published figures
8. Local authority statistics, actual expenditure, revisions to previously published figures

Seasonal Adjustment

New items of income or expenditure that are included by local authorities can impact seasonal adjustment when the seasonal component of the data is unknown. With the introduction of Auckland’s regional fuel tax (RFT) in the September 2018 quarter, we have seen greater volatility in the seasonally adjusted regulatory income and petrol tax series. We expect this volatility to continue for a number of quarters until we have collected sufficient data to understand any changes in the seasonality of this series resulting from the introduction of the RFT.

Revisions

Annual benchmarking to Local authority finance statistics data

Local authority finance statistics (LAFS) is an annual collection which covers local authorities’ income and expenditure. Each June quarter, we reconcile recent provisional quarterly Local Authority Statistics data with the latest available LAFS data to enhance the accuracy of the Local Authority Statistics collection. In the June 2019 quarter, this involved reconciling September 2017 to June 2018 quarters to annual LAFS data for the year ended June 2018. As such, various revisions were applied this quarter, as expected at each June quarter release.

Current grants, subsidies and donations income time-series revisions

In the June 2019 quarter, revisions were applied to Current grants, subsidies and donations income time-series after noticing that some capital grants and subsidies income had been included in this category. These capital grants portions were removed from September 2011 to June 2017 quarters.