Electricity and dairy prices push up producer prices
Electricity and dairy prices push up producer prices
19 May 2014
Producer prices moved up due to increases in both electricity and dairy prices, Statistics New Zealand said today. Prices received by New Zealand producers, as measured by the output producers price index (PPI), rose 0.9 percent in the March 2014 quarter, and the input PPI, representing the prices of goods and services used by New Zealand producers, rose 1.0 percent.
"The higher prices for electricity generation contributed to both the higher input and output PPIs in the latest quarter,'' prices manager Chris Pike said. "This often happens in March quarters, due to spot-market conditions and low lake levels."
In the March 2014 quarter, the output electricity
and gas supply price index rose 14 percent, which
contributed more than half of the rise in the output PPI.
The input electricity and gas supply price index (up 20
percent) contributed nearly three-quarters of the rise in
the input PPI. In the year to the March 2014 quarter, the
output electricity and gas supply price index rose 2.8
percent, while that for inputs rose
0.7 percent.
Higher prices for raw milk resulted in an increase in
prices received by dairy cattle farmers (up 4.0 percent),
and an increase in input prices paid by dairy product
manufacturers (up 3.1 percent) in the latest quarter. In the
year to the March 2014 quarter, the prices received by the
dairy cattle farming industry increased 47 percent, and the
prices paid by the dairy product manufacturing industry
increased 39
percent.
In the year to the March 2014 quarter, the output PPI was up 4.0 percent, and the input PPI rose 3.1 percent.
For more information about these statistics:
• Visit Producers Price Index: March 2014 quarter
Ends