Period-specific information: Year ended March 2022

Scope of regional gross domestic product Region by industry estimates for March years 2000-2021 Regional GDP industry estimates for 2000 to 2021 are based on balanced national industry data from National accounts (industry production and investment): Year ended March 2021. The industry data for this period has been “balanced” using the national accounting supply-use framework. For most industries, unit-level financial data has been utilised to aggregate to a national total (known as the “bottom-up” approach). For regional GDP these same sources are used and matched to geographic information also available at unit-level, allowing us to allocate national industry GDP figures to regions. The use of firm-level data to apply “bottom-up” methods follows international best-practice and provides the strongest source of regional data for most industries. For more information, see Regional gross domestic product: General information. Provisional estimates for the year The unit-level data sources noted above that are used to compile the national and regional industry estimates are not available for the provisional year. We therefore use other data sources that provide a regional dimension to derive industry provisional estimates that are aggregated into regional-level GDP totals. We do not regard these figures as being of the same quality as the pre-2022 balanced years, therefore we provide provisional estimates only for the region totals. COVID-19 and the calculation of regional GDP’s provisional estimate Similar to the March 2021 year, the March 2022 year includes periods where COVID-19 restrictions and business support programmes were in place. We were conscious that due to this, possible measurement issues could arise with certain data sources normally used to gauge regional economic activity in the provisional year. We were also aware that the March 2022 year was a period of more lockdowns and greater use of regional-based restrictions. Specifically, the Auckland region and neighbouring regions Northland and Waikato, had extended periods of alert level 3 and 4 lockdowns before the new traffic light system was adopted. New Zealand adopted the traffic light system on 2 December 2021, which shifted to a new protection framework and restrictions became more localised. It was not until April 2022 when all New Zealand moved to Orange. These circumstances added to our concern that normal provisional-year data sources may not be sufficiently capturing differential regional impacts in some industries. We therefore evaluated alternative regional data sources that in principle would not be distorted by the Government’s economic interventions and made changes where our analysis indicated the alternative source provided an improved estimate. Revisions We incorporated revisions to national industry totals published in November 2022. These revisions affect the national totals that are allocated to regions. See 2022 national accounts improvements preview for more information. We updated regional allocation proportions with new input data, which includes updated annual enterprise survey data and LEED. These updates affect the proportional allocation to regions. en-NZ