BPI data collection September 2019

This BPI release includes the September 2019 quarter PPI, CGPI, and FEPI data.

Response rates for September 2019 quarter

Key firms Achieved: 100 percent Target: 100 percent

Non-key firms Achieved: 96.0 percent Target: 96 percent

Commodity review

We are continuing our rolling review of the business price indexes. The review has two objectives: to maintain the relevance of these indexes and to collect commodity data for use in the national accounts. We are surveying a sample of economically significant enterprises operating in New Zealand, to collect information on their supply and use of goods and services (commodities). We use this commodity information (by industry) to update lower-level weights for the business price indexes. We use these indexes as deflators in producing a chain-volume measure of GDP. In the September 2019 quarter, we implemented redeveloped commodity price indexes for the following industry: Textile, leather, cloth, and footwear manufacturing.

Revisions

In this quarter's release we have revised figures for the Electricity and gas supply industry and All industries index in response to updated data we received from respondents. The revisions affect the December 2018, March 2019, and June 2019 quarters.

We have also revised the Road user charges commodity index in the December 2018 and March 2019 quarters to correct a discrepancy in the timing of price changes.

The table below lists the series which have been revised this quarter and also shows the period with the largest difference compared to the original figure (note the most recent period is shown where the largest difference persists for more that one period).

(1) Where the largest difference persists for more than one period, the most recent period has been listed.

Exchange rates

The New Zealand dollar depreciated against three key currencies (US dollar, Japanese yen, and the Euro) and appreciated against two key currencies(UK pound, and Australian dollar) when comparing the mid-point of the September 2019 and June 2019 quarters. A depreciating NZ dollar has an upward influence on the prices New Zealand producers pay for imported goods and services, and the prices received for exports. When calculating the PPI and CGPI, we generally use prices collected on the 15th day of the middle month in the quarter to represent the entire quarter. When these prices are collected in foreign currencies, they are converted to NZ dollars using the exchange rate at the mid-point of the quarter. The table below shows changes in the value of the NZ dollar in foreign currency denominations, from the mid-point of the June 2019 quarter to the mid-point of the September 2019 quarter.

For a limited number of prices (e.g. petroleum product manufacturing) we use quarterly average prices. For these prices, the relevant exchange-rate movements are based on the average exchange rate for the quarter.