Livestock Prices Push Farm Expenses Higher

Farm Expenses Price Index: December 2000 quarter

Farm input prices, including livestock, rose 2.7 per cent in the December 2000 quarter, according to Statistics New Zealand's Farm Expenses Price Index. This is the sixth consecutive quarterly rise in the all farms inputs index, which has increased 9.6 per cent since the June 1999 quarter.

Livestock prices rose 8.6 per cent, contributing more than a third to the 2.7 per cent overall increase in the December 2000 quarter. The index measuring livestock prices for all farms has increased in all of the last seven quarters. Between the March 1999 and the December 2000 quarters livestock prices rose by 33.1 per cent. When livestock is excluded, input prices for all farms rose 1.9 per cent in the December 2000 quarter.

John Cornish DEPUTY GOVERNMENT STATISTICIAN

END

© Scoop Media