Consumers price index figures corrected for March and June

Consumers price index figures corrected for March and June 2015 quarters

8 September 2015

Statistics New Zealand has today corrected some consumers price index (CPI) figures for the March and June 2015 quarters.

As a result, the quarterly CPI change in the March 2015 quarter moves to -0.2 percent. It was previously published as -0.3 percent (20 April 2015). The quarterly June CPI movement remains at 0.4 percent.

The annual change in CPI for the year to the March 2015 quarter moves to 0.3 percent (from 0.1 percent), and the June 2015 quarter’s annual change is now 0.4 percent (instead of 0.3 percent).

The tradable and non-tradable figures and some of the more detailed subgroups are also affected.

See Consumers price index for more details.

The changes result from a one-off processing error being discovered by Statistics NZ during more detailed analysis. We are confident the corrections are needed only for the March and June 2015 quarters.

While the changes to the headline CPI numbers are small, we are correcting them now to ensure our customers have the best possible information to inform their decisions. The CPI is one piece of information the Reserve Bank uses to set the official cash rate (OCR) level. Statistics NZ has notified the Reserve Bank of these changes ahead of its OCR announcement on Thursday, 10 September.

The corrected CPI figures will be incorporated in the Gross Domestic Product: June 2015 quarter release on 17 September 2015. The correction will mainly affect the March 2015 quarter GDP and is likely to be small.

Statistics NZ apologises for any inconvenience caused by this error.

ENDS

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