Oil Drives Inflation - Stats NZ

Producers Price Index: December 1999 quarter

Oil Drives Inflation

Statistics New Zealand today released latest Producers Price Index results which show the average price level of both inputs and outputs of businesses increased in the December 1999 quarter.

Deputy Government Statistician Ian Ewing said output prices increased 1.0 per cent while input prices increased 1.5 per cent in the December 1999 quarter. This is the highest quarterly increase in input prices since the December 1990 quarter.

Over the three quarters from March to December 1999, prices of inputs to businesses increased 3.5 per cent. Mr Ewing said that this was a greater increase than for the previous five years, in which prices increased by 2.4 per cent.

Higher oil and fuel prices contributed to a 4.7 per cent increase in the wholesale trade inputs index and a 4.0 per cent increase in the transport and storage inputs index in the December 1999 quarter. Increased fuel prices were the main contributor to the rise in the wholesale trade outputs index.

Also contributing to the increase in the input indexes were higher prices for imported goods and raw materials. This follows depreciation in the New Zealand dollar and stronger world commodity prices. A recovery in some dairy prices and the fall in the New Zealand dollar contributed to a 5.9 per cent increase in the dairy product manufacturing outputs index.

The overall increase in prices parallels the increase shown in the Capital Goods Price Index released yesterday.

Ian Ewing Deputy Government Statistician END

There is a companion Hot Off The Press information release published - Producers Price Index, 25 February 2000

© Scoop Media