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 per cent. It was previously published as -0.3 per cent (20 April 2015). The quarterly June CPI movement remains at 0.4 per cent.
The annual change in CPI for the year to the March 2015 quarter moves to 0.3 per cent (from 0.1 per cent), and the June 2015 quarter’s annual change is now 0.4 per cent (instead of 0.3 per cent).
The tradable and non-tradable figures and some of the more detailed subgroups are also affected.
The changes result from a one-off processing error being discovered by Statistics NZ during more detailed analysis. It is confident the corrections are needed only for the March and June 2015 quarters.
While the changes to the headline CPI numbers are small, it is correcting them now to ensure its 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.
The corrected CPI figures will be incorporated in the Gross Domestic Product: June 2015 quarter release on September 17. 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.
