AKA: inflation
Key notes
- Remember that each Labour-led or National-led government has had coalition partners that share the successes, and the failures, with them. A full list of governments for this time range is at the bottom of this page.
- You can toggle the RBNZ inflation targets on and off by clicking on 'Inflation Target' in the legend underneath the graphic.
Data sources
Data shown:
- Annual CPI inflation rate at the end of each quarter.
- 1990 Q1 onwards as that follows the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 1989 which introduced targets.
Full data:
- 1925 Q4 onwards = infoshare.stats.govt.nz > Browse > Economic indicators > Consumers Price Index – CPI > CPI All Groups for New Zealand, percentage change (Qtrly-Mar/Jun/Sep/Dec) [Select ‘Percentage change from same period previous year’]
Summary data:
Frequency:
Updated:
- 17-24 days after the March/June/September/December quarters end
Last update:
Next update:
Why this KPI?
- Changes in the cost of living are measured by inflation/deflation indices (deflation is rare).
- Oxford definitions:
- Inflation = a fall in the value of money and a general increase in prices; the rate at which this happens
- Deflation = a reduction in the amount of money in a country’s economy so that prices fall or remain the same
- The CPI (Consumer Price Index) is the lead KPI (Key Performance Indicator) used by politicians, government organisations, economists, and media to measure inflation, so we have used it as the lead KPI for the cost of living issue too.
- HOWEVER, please be aware that while the CPI includes rent costs and the cost of building a new house, it does NOT include mortgage interest costs, the price of land, or the deposit amount, which are the biggest expenses for many households with mortgages and first home buyers.
- The HLPI (Household Living-cost Price Index) does take mortgage interest into account, HOWEVER, this metric is also limited in that it doesn’t take into account the rising costs of house deposits or the rising prices of houses, e.g. a 10% deposit on a $400k home ($40k) one decade vs 20% on $800k ($160k) the next. It ignores first-home buyers and makes the assumption that people are moving from like to like houses when moving, so deflates the series to keep the house price constant.
- If we can get enough support, we’d love to create a true inflation metric for New Zealand.
Related facts
Wishlist
With support, we’ll be able to add multiple KPIs for each issue:
- Our own true inflation metric. See kpi.nz/wishlist.
- HLPI (Household Living-Costs Price Index)
- Business price indexes
- GNDI (Gross National Disposable Income) (AKA Real earnings after tax)
- Median incomes vs median living costs
- Mortgage interest rates as a % of income (interest vs principal), or median mortgage interest rates
- Rent as a % of income
- Food price index vs median household income (older data here)
- Food price index biggest risers and fallers (older data here)
- Petrol prices adjusted for inflation, including fuel taxes
- Household/personal debt
Governments over the timeframe shown
- 1984 = Labour
1987 = Labour
- 1990 = National
1993 = National*
1996 = National/NZ First*
- 1999 = Labour/Alliance + Green
2002 = Labour/Progressive + United
2005 = Labour/Progressive + United, NZ First
- 2008 = National + ACT, United, Māori
2011 = National + ACT, United, Māori
2014 = National + ACT, United, Māori
- 2017 = Labour/NZ First+Green
2020 = Labour+Green
Sources:1,2 (table 5).
Data published by Stats NZ and Reserve Bank of New Zealand
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