National Accounts (Income and Expenditure): Year ended March 2019

19/12/2019 - Household consumption estimates in quarterly and annual national accounts The March 2019 year provisional estimates for Household Consumption Expenditure (HCE) and Expenditure on Gross Domestic Product (GDE) published in National accounts (income and expenditure): Year ended March 2019 differ from those published in Gross Domestic Product: September 2019 quarter. The provisional estimates of HCE and GDE published in the annual income and expenditure release are always revised with the subsequent release of September quarter Gross Domestic Product due to the incorporation of updated data. The changes from this update are larger than usual because of an error when compiling the 2019 provisional estimate of HCE, published in National accounts (income and expenditure): Year ended March 2019. HCE estimates were revised down by approximately $720m in the September quarter Gross Domestic Product release. Because of this, we ask customers use the latest HCE and GDE estimates published in Gross Domestic Product: September 2019 quarter. The 2019 provisional year estimates for household saving and net lending will be updated as part of the National accounts (income and expenditure): Year ended March 2020 annual release. Stats NZ is an open and transparent organisation. We have rigorous processes to check data before publication, and regret that this error was not identified earlier. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Period-specific information This release contains revisions arising from new and updated information. It incorporates National accounts (industry production and investment): Year ended March 2018 statistics and new and improved information. Estimates for 2019 are provisional Figures for the year ended March 2019 are provisional, and incomplete for the business sectors of the economy. We will incorporate up-to-date information in future releases. The new information will also affect distributions between the business and household sectors and flow into household saving. National accounts (income and expenditure): Year ended March 2020 will provide provisional estimates for the March 2020 year and revised estimates for the March 2018 and 2019 years. Revisions to the national accounts in 2020 will result from up-to-date information becoming available, including updated data from the annual enterprise survey: 2018 financial year (provisional) and the inclusion of detailed results from the 2019 annual enterprise survey. Statistics for the years up to 2018 are consistent with National accounts (industry production and investment): Year ended March 2018 Revisions This release contains the following revisions to annual national accounts arising from new and updated information: updated information from the 2017 annual enterprise survey an extra year of balanced national accounts data, with goods and services reconciled up to the March 2018 year updated investment and inventories data, reflecting a reallocation of investment values between the private and public sectors to be more consistent across institutional sector breakdowns revisions to central government and household expenditure data, incorporating changes from GST and social assistance benefits in kind trade data revisions, including IT and film exports. The institutional sector accounts also include the following updates for 2014–18: updated tax data updated balance of payments data updated information from the annual enterprise surveys and other data sources, with reconciliation of financial flows, such as interest and dividend payments and receipts, between all sectors up to 2018. See the 2019 national accounts improvements preview for more information on the above changes. In addition to the revisions mentioned in the preview paper, in the institutional sector accounts we also updated values for non-life insurance premiums receivable and payable for the years 2014–17. This update improves the estimates of net non-life insurance premiums payable by the domestic sectors to the insurance industry. An increase in the net non-life insurance premium payable by the non-corporate sector also affects entrepreneurial withdrawals for this sector, as a higher premium payable reduces the residual income available to the sector to distribute back to households. A downward revision to income of self-employed business owners means household saving is also revised downward by the same magnitude. Compensation of employees – change to methodology for producing provisional estimates We have always used linked employer-employee data (LEED) gross earnings for calculating provisional estimates for compensation of employees (COE). However, because LEED data was not available before publication in 2019, we used Inland Revenue’s employer monthly schedule and other sources to calculate COE. Inland Revenue data is very similar to that underlying the LEED source, but some compositional dissimilarities could result in differences between the estimates from the two sources. Revisions to national accounts (industry production and investment) The revisions to national accounts (industry production and investment) result from balancing the production and expenditure estimates of GDP within a supply-and-use framework. Annual national accounts sources and methods has more information on this. Revisions to balance of payments Balance of payments and international investment position: Year ended 31 March 2019 included revisions to overseas investment income, which are included in this release. Revisions of note include updated spending by international students in New Zealand, cruise expenditure, investment income, reinsurance claims and settlements for the Canterbury and Kaikōura earthquakes. See 2019 revisions to balance of payments and national accounts for balance of payments revisions and an evaluation of their impact. Revisions to national saving from new and improved information National saving revisions summary Year ended March National saving in current price, $(million) Published Nov 2018 Published Nov 2019 2017 18,495 18,213 2018 18,087 20,968 Revisions to household saving from new and improved information Household saving revisions summary Year ended March Household saving in current price, $(million) Published Nov 2018 Published Nov 2019 2014 427 498 2015 -1,365 -1,325 2016 -921 -797 2017 159 -196 2018 -2,279 -302 en-NZ