Electricity pushes down producer prices

Electricity pushes down producer prices – Media release

Prices received by New Zealand producers, as measured by the output producers price index (PPI), fell 0.1 percent in the December 2012 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today.

The input PPI, representing the prices of goods and services used by New Zealand producers, fell 0.3 percent.

"Lower electricity generation prices contributed to both the output and input PPI falls in the latest quarter," prices manager Chris Pike said.

In the December 2012 quarter, the electricity and gas supply output price index was down 8.0 percent while the input price index fell 5.8 percent. Lower generation and retail prices were due to greater hydro storage and to spot-market conditions.

The output price index for meat and meat product manufacturing fell 2.2 percent, reflecting lower prices for both sheepmeat and beef. The main rise in the output PPI was for dairy cattle farming (up 4.2 percent) due to increased farm-gate milk prices.

In the year to the December 2012 quarter, the output PPI was down 0.8 percent, while the input PPI was down 0.5 percent.

For more information about these statistics:
• Visit Producers Price Index: December 2012 quarter
•
• Open the attached files

Information release (PDF) Tables (Excel) Copy of this media release (PDF)

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1302/ProducersPriceIndexDec12qtr.pdf

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1302/ppidec12qtrtables.xls

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