BPI data collection December 2020

This BPI release includes the December 2020 quarter PPI, CGPI, and FEPI data. Response rates for December 2020 quarter Key firms Achieved: 100 percent Target: 100 percent Non-key firms Achieved: 96.1 percent Target: 96 percent Commodity review We are continuing our rolling review of the business price indexes. The review has two objectives: to maintain the relevance of these indexes and to collect commodity data for use in the national accounts. We are surveying a sample of economically significant enterprises operating in New Zealand, to collect information on their supply and use of goods and services (commodities). We use this commodity information (by industry) to update lower-level weights for the business price indexes. We use these indexes as deflators in producing a chain-volume measure of GDP. Exchange rates The New Zealand dollar appreciated against five key currencies (US dollar, UK pound, Japanese yen, Euro, AUS dollar) when comparing the mid-point of the December 2020 and September 2020 quarters. An appreciating NZ dollar has a downward influence on the prices New Zealand producers pay for imported goods and services, and the prices received for exports. When calculating the PPI and CGPI, we generally use prices collected on the 15th day of the middle month in the quarter to represent the entire quarter. When these prices are collected in foreign currencies, they are converted to NZ dollars using the exchange rate at the mid-point of the quarter. The table below shows changes in the value of the NZ dollar in foreign currency denominations, from the mid-point of the September 2020 quarter to the mid-point of the December 2020 quarter. Exchange rates Bank selling rates for NZ$1.00 USA (NZ$:US$) UK (NZ$:pound) Australia (NZ$:AUS$) Japan (NZ$:yen) Europe (NZ$:euro) 14 August 2020 0.6417 0.4916 0.8984 68.6268 0.5435 13 November 2020 0.6714 0.5119 0.9279 70.6242 0.5689 Percentage change 4.6 4.1 3.3 2.9 4.7 Source: Westpac Banking Corporation Finance services imputation As a result of the data breach at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, delivery of some data that feeds directly into producer price index statistics has been delayed. The result impacts finance services inputs and outputs (industry KK11) directly, and other industries indirectly. Data for the October 2020 and November 2020 months has been incorporated in the current release, while the December 2020 month data has been imputed based on October and November monthly data. We expect delivery of this data will occur before the March 2021 quarter release, and we will incorporate it at that time. For a limited number of prices (e.g. petroleum product manufacturing) we use quarterly average prices. For these prices, the relevant exchange-rate movements are based on the average exchange rate for the quarter. en-NZ