National accounts (income, saving, assets, and liabilities): December 2024 quarter Data Collection

1. Introduction National accounts (income, saving, assets, and liabilities) for New Zealand was published for the first time in June 2021; the data is updated each quarter, and timeseries are available from June 2016 quarter onwards. The series in these accounts are in current (nominal) price, in both actual and seasonally adjusted terms. The National accounts (income, saving, assets, and liabilities): Sources and methods are thoroughly documented. The data used to compile our estimates of quarterly income, saving, assets, and liabilities are the best that we have available at that point in time. When compiling our quarterly estimates, we usually face trade-offs between timeliness and the quality, coverage, length of historical series, and conceptual alignment of available data sources. As a result, the methodologies vary depending on the data available and are underpinned by certain assumptions. These statistics are experimental and may be subject to greater change than other releases as we improve methodology or include more comprehensive data. Part of the rationale for releasing estimates on an experimental basis is to allow users an opportunity to comment on methods and details of published series. If you have any feedback or comments that you’d like to pass on, or for more information on changes, email [email protected]. The quarterly income measure of gross domestic product (GDPI), along with total economy compensation of employees, gross operating surplus and gross mixed income, taxes on production and imports, and subsidies became official in the December 2023 quarter and were most recently published in Gross domestic product: December 2024 quarter on 20 March 2025. Income by institutional sector and saving, assets and liabilities measures will remain experimental and continue to be published shortly after the quarterly GDP release. 2.Data Collection and Methodology changes 2.1 Source data updates 2.1.1 Updates from Gross Domestic Product (GDP) series GDP estimates are reflected in National accounts (income, saving, assets, and liabilities) where the same series are used in both publications. In this release there are data updates flowing through from GDP to the following series in the consolidated accounts and institutional sector accounts: Final Consumption Expenditure Changes to household sector final consumption expenditure due to (1) an update to the annual forecast for household spending on education, largely affecting June 2022 onwards and (2) balance of payments data updates, impacting the September 2024 quarter. Changes to local government final consumption expenditure due to updated Quarterly Local Authority Survey data, largely affecting September 2022 quarter onwards. Change in inventories Changes due to incorporating new data from Agricultural Production Statistics, updating estimates from March 2022 quarter onwards. Changes due to updated Business financial data (BFD), affecting September 2022 quarter onwards. See Infoshare changes by date | Stats NZ. Gross fixed capital formation Non-financial business sector changes largely due to updated Quarterly Building Activity Survey data. See Value of building work put in place: December 2024 quarter. These updates affect the March 2024 quarter onwards. Update to annual benchmark for private ships, affecting transport equipment gross fixed capital formation from March 2020 quarter onwards. Update to international trade data for the September 2024 quarter, causing revision to plant, machinery and equipment gross capital fixed formation. Compensation of employees Minor changes in the September 2024 quarter resulting from updates to Quarterly Local Authority Survey (QLAS) salaries and wages data. Gross operating surplus, gross mixed income, entrepreneurial income, and entrepreneurial withdrawals Changes due to updates to Business Financial Data (BFD), Quarterly Building Activity Survey data, final consumption expenditure and other data sources, largely affecting the estimates from June 2022 quarter onwards. See Gross domestic product: December 2024 quarter – changes and data updates for further information. 2.1.2 Updates from Balance of Payments (BOP) and International Investment Position (IIP) The Rest of World sector is subject to updates in all accounts each quarter due to BOP and IIP updates. These changes are due mainly to respondents updating their previously reported data, which affects the most recent previously published quarter. In addition, changes to methods used in compiling BOP and IIP are introduced once each year, in the June quarter BOP and IIP release. These can affect quarterly data over several years, and result in updates in the June quarter releases of National accounts (income, saving, assets, and liabilities). All accounts can be updated according to changes in the Rest of World sector, and updates to the Rest of World sector may result in changes to resident sectors that are estimated from the counterparty dimension of BOP and IIP data. Series affected by updates from Balance of Payments include all series in the Rest of World sector, and include the following series for other sectors: Interest Dividends Reinvested earnings on direct investment Investment income payable to and receivable from the rest of the world Non-life insurance claims and premiums Miscellaneous current transfers Debt securities, with flow on impacts to equity. See Balance of payments and international investment position: December 2024 quarter for further information. 2.1.3 Updates to land Quarterly estimates of non-produced non-financial assets (land) are derived by using annual land estimates from CoreLogic property values by property type, quarterly CoreLogic residential property estimates for recent quarters, and movements in the CoreLogic House Price Index (HPI) in latest quarters when residential property estimates are not yet available. The HPI estimates for the most recent two quarters are updated as CoreLogic collects more data on housing and land transactions. Thus, given the total value of housing and land in New Zealand (over one trillion dollars), it is expected that updated HPI values may contribute to substantial changes in some sectors. This is particularly the case for the non-financial business enterprises sector (which contains most of the residential property operators) and the household sector. In quarters after the latest annual balance sheet benchmarks, property values are used as a control total for each sector, then estimates for non-financial assets such as buildings and land improvements are deducted, to derive land estimates as a residual. 2.1.4 Other source data updates Other source data updates caused minor changes to: Dividends payable and receivable for the non-financial business enterprises sector - updated IR4K data for the March 2024 period. Interest payable for the financial business enterprises sector – updated data from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, affecting the September 2024 quarter. 2.2 Methodology changes 2.2.1 Seasonal adjustment outlier treatment Sharp changes in activity, such as those caused by the COVID-19 lockdown, pose challenges for our usual seasonal adjustment process. We have retained the previous outliers applied from the March 2020 quarter onwards to account for these sharp changes in activity. This has the effect of subduing the impact of unusual data points in the seasonal adjustment process. The irregular impacts of COVID-19 largely finished in the June 2022 quarter and for many affected series we have stopped applying additive outlier treatment from the September 2022 quarter onwards. We will continue to monitor time series for unusual data points and apply additive outlier treatment as needed. 3 Changes to previously published statistics 3.1 Changes to Income and Outlay statistics 3.1.1 Changes to household saving Source data updates to dividends data, as described above, led to downward changes to dividends received by the household sector in the March 2024 quarter. Also, changes to dividends received in the non-financial business sector led to a reduction in entrepreneurial income paid to the household sector. These source data changes to dividends were the main contributor to the downward change to household saving in the March 2024 quarter, with a smaller contribution from changes to household consumption expenditure. In the September 2024 quarter, an update to household consumption expenditure was the main contributor to changes to household saving. The following table shows the previously published and updated quarterly household saving from the June 2016–September 2024 quarters. Table 1. Household saving ($million) in current prices, actual values (not seasonally adjusted) Quarter Published January 2025 Published April 2025 Change in value Jun-16 -828 -829 -1 Sep-16 -1,135 -1,137 -2 Dec-16 -1,755 -1,749 6 Mar-17 996 993 -3 Jun-17 -1,738 -1,739 -1 Sep-17 -1,269 -1,269 0 Dec-17 -1,269 -1,268 1 Mar-18 991 991 0 Jun-18 -907 -907 0 Sep-18 -737 -737 0 Dec-18 -1,365 -1,365 0 Mar-19 823 822 -1 Jun-19 -203 -203 0 Sep-19 15 16 1 Dec-19 -282 -282 0 Mar-20 3,056 3,056 0 Jun-20 6,480 6,480 0 Sep-20 2,833 2,832 -1 Dec-20 1,808 1,808 0 Mar-21 3,977 3,978 1 Jun-21 -54 -52 2 Sep-21 3,767 3,768 1 Dec-21 496 496 0 Mar-22 900 898 -2 Jun-22 -1,127 -1,135 -8 Sep-22 -1,331 -1,335 -4 Dec-22 -3,786 -3,789 -3 Mar-23 -232 -216 16 Jun-23 -1,407 -1,396 11 Sep-23 -1,318 -1,261 57 Dec-23 -2,976 -3,013 -37 Mar-24 2,026 1,825 -201 Jun-24 -1,236 -1,228 8 Sep-24 -1,763 -1,823 -60 3.2. Changes to Balance Sheet statistics 3.2.1 Changes to household net worth Changes to household net worth in the September 2024 quarter are substantially larger than earlier quarters due mainly to the changes in residential land. As noted above, in the section 2.1.3 Updates to land, the previous quarter HPI estimates used as an indicator have been revised from the initial provisional estimate. This change in non-financial assets caused most of the value change in household net worth. The other component is the change in household equity assets. The household sector is the balancing sector for equity assets, thus changes in any other sectors equity liabilities can result in changes to final equity assets to the household sector to balance. This component contributed just over 26 percent of the household net worth change. The following table shows the previously published and updated quarterly household net worth for the June 2016–September 2024 quarters. Table 2. Household net worth ($million) in current prices, actual values (not seasonally adjusted) Quarter Published January 2025 Published April 2025 Change in value Jun-16 1,445,844 1,445,954 110 Sep-16 1,500,455 1,500,669 214 Dec-16 1,526,000 1,526,265 265 Mar-17 1,535,327 1,535,327 0 Jun-17 1,572,447 1,572,378 -69 Sep-17 1,604,037 1,603,867 -170 Dec-17 1,637,046 1,636,784 -262 Mar-18 1,652,095 1,652,095 0 Jun-18 1,657,201 1,657,653 452 Sep-18 1,692,918 1,693,836 918 Dec-18 1,702,747 1,704,018 1,271 Mar-19 1,725,152 1,725,152 0 Jun-19 1,716,170 1,715,978 -192 Sep-19 1,742,790 1,742,422 -368 Dec-19 1,779,114 1,778,546 -568 Mar-20 1,804,361 1,804,361 0 Jun-20 1,827,682 1,827,824 142 Sep-20 1,898,791 1,899,050 259 Dec-20 2,016,849 2,017,249 400 Mar-21 2,138,512 2,138,512 0 Jun-21 2,230,425 2,230,293 -132 Sep-21 2,353,363 2,353,074 -289 Dec-21 2,478,176 2,477,744 -432 Mar-22 2,473,077 2,473,077 0 Jun-22 2,417,027 2,417,139 112 Sep-22 2,398,668 2,399,038 370 Dec-22 2,407,376 2,407,829 453 Mar-23 2,403,491 2,403,491 0 Jun-23 2,390,502 2,390,518 16 Sep-23 2,423,012 2,423,134 122 Dec-23 2,444,366 2,444,547 181 Mar-24 2,464,182 2,464,343 161 Jun-24 2,440,217 2,440,569 352 Sep-24 2,418,531 2,439,528 20,997 en-NZ