OTI June 2019 Data Collection

Exchange-rate information The Reserve Bank of New Zealand's trade weighted index (TWI) fell 1.8 percent in the June 2019 quarter. A falling New Zealand dollar has an upward influence on both export and import prices. The Reserve Bank's TWI is based on 17 countries. Import values are converted to New Zealand dollars by the New Zealand Customs Service (NZCS) using their exchange rates. These exchange rates can lag by 11 to 25 days compared with the Reserve Bank rates. The TWI we calculate using NZCS rates fell by 1.5 percent in the June 2019 quarter, following a 1.2 percent rise in the March 2019 quarter. See Basis of valuation – merchandise trade in data collection methodology for more information on exchange rates. The following tables give more information about exchange-rate movements over the June 2019 quarter. Exchange rates for June 2019 quarter Reserve Bank of New Zealand USA (NZ$:US$) UK (NZ$:pound) Australia (NZ$:A$) Japan (NZ$:yen) Euro (NZ$:euro) TWI Change from March 2019 quarter (%) -2.7 -1.4 -1.0 -2.9 -1.7 -1.8 Exchange rates for June 2019 quarter New Zealand Customs Service USA (NZ$:US$) UK (NZ$:pound) Australia (NZ$:A$) Japan (NZ$:yen) Euro (NZ$:euro) TWI Change from March 2019 quarter (%) -2.5 -3.0 -0.7 -2.0 -0.8 -1.5 en-NZ Period-specific information This section contains information that has changed since the last release. Timing of published data Imputation for the June 2019 quarter Exchange-rate changes General information See DataInfo+ for information that is not specific to this quarter's release. Release of latest results More information Period-specific information Timing of published data We calculate the merchandise price indexes in this release from the same data we used in the Overseas Merchandise Trade: July 2019 monthly release (published 26 August 2019). We do not include updates published after this date. Because OMT statistics are provisional for the three most-recent months, we may amend them in the three months after initial publication. Merchandise price indexes are also provisional for one quarter, to allow us to include late data and amendments to the source data. Consequently, merchandise values in this OTI release that relate to the March 2019 quarter are based on later data than that originally published (4 June 2019). We will update the provisional import volumes and values with Overseas Trade Indexes (Prices and Volumes): September 2019 quarter (provisional), released on 2 December 2019. These will include more-recent information that may affect prices, volumes, values for the June 2019 quarter. We expect the effect to be small. The services price indexes are final figures. We may revise these indexes when lagged prices are used in new indexes and are later replaced by current prices. However, they are usually revised only for significant errors. Revised numbers are identified by an R in the tables that accompany this release. Imputation for the June 2019 quarter For the June 2019 quarter, our base annual imputation rates were 20.3 percent for exports and 40.4 percent for imports. See the 'Imputation' subsection in Overseas Trade Indexes (Prices and Volumes) (DataInfo+) for more information. Exchange-rate changes A falling New Zealand dollar has an upward influence on both export and import prices in New Zealand dollars. The impact on the terms of trade depends on the relative mix of exports and imports for each currency. NZCS exchange rates differ from the weekly exchange rates used to calculate merchandise export values. We convert import values from foreign currencies, using the rates the NZCS sets every two weeks. These exchange rates are prepared 11 days before the effective date (when the item was imported) and are then applied for two weeks. Therefore, there is a lag of 11 to 25 days between the NZCS exchange rates and those the Reserve Bank publishes. This means the NZCS exchange rate, and therefore the import prices, will be slower to show the effect of exchange-rate changes than the Reserve Bank rates and the export prices. General information Release of latest results Merchandise trade provisional indexes are available within nine weeks of the end of the reference quarter. We release final indexes within 22 weeks of the end of the reference quarter. We only release final data for the services indexes. This data is available at the same time as the provisional merchandise trade indexes. More information See Overseas trade indexes for more information. Statistics in this release have been produced in accordance with the Official Statistics System principles and protocols for producers of Tier 1 statistics for quality. They conform to the Statistics NZ Methodological Standard for Reporting of Data Quality. 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