National Accounts - March 2019

Gross domestic product: March 2019 quarter – revisions We incorporated some revisions in this release. Revisions are usually driven by new or improved data that affect historical results, or changes to the underlying measure. In both cases we aim to better represent the real-life situation of a changing society, economy, and environment. The key revisions are discussed below: incorporation of annual agricultural production statistics chain linking other revisions. Incorporation of annual agricultural production statistics We incorporated data from Agricultural production statistics: June 2018 (final). The data replaced earlier provisional and modelled stock levels. Incorporating the final data led to revisions to agricultural activity in GDP, and to agricultural inventories in the expenditure measure of GDP. These changes caused revisions from the September 2016 quarter onwards. ##Chain linking We use data for March years to calculate chain-volume measures. Some previously published quarterly chain-volume measures have been revised because we now have year ended March 2019 results. The revisions affect the production and expenditure measures of GDP. They are particularly noticeable in the chain-volume measures of the production measure of GDP for the following industries – forestry and logging; fishing, aquaculture, and agriculture; forestry and fishing support services (especially to the revisions earlier than September 2017); manufacturing; accommodation and food services; and health care and social assistance. There are also chaining revisions in exports and imports in the expenditure measure of GDP. See Chain volume measures in National Accounts for more information. ##Other revisions Financial intermediation services indirectly measured Updated input data for financial intermediation services indirectly measured (FISIM) resulted in revisions to financial and insurance services in the production measure of GDP, and in the expenditure measure of GDP. Wholesale trade survey revisions Wholesale trade survey: March 2019 quarter revisions for the commission-based wholesaling industry for the March 1995 to December 2018 quarters has flowed through and caused revisions to the wholesale trade industry in the production measure. Local authority statistics revisions Local Authority Statistics: March 2019 quarter data caused revisions to the local government administration in the production measure and to the local government expenditure. Travel services exports Updated administrative data led to revised estimates of the December 2018 quarter travel services exports. This data contributes to estimates of exports, and also non-residents’ expenditure in New Zealand which is used to derive household consumption expenditure. Vehicle imports We have incorporated a conceptual adjustment to expenditure in the December 2018 and March 2019 quarters, to correctly reflect changes in the ownership of vehicles held outside New Zealand. This relates to imports delayed by the discovery of stink bugs in the December 2018 quarter. Other revisions due to updated indicator data We made other revisions due to updated source data. Incorporating updated source data as it becomes available is a normal process, as it better reflects what is going on in the economy. We received updated respondent information and other source data, causing revisions to: agriculture, forestry, and fishing mining manufacturing electricity, gas, water, and waste services telecommunications rental, hiring, and real-estate services public administration, safety, and defence exports and imports gross fixed capital formation household consumption expenditure. Revisions to inventories Inventories revised due to the process of reconciling inventory changes with the rest of the economy each March quarter. This process minimises timing and valuation issues. Processing error correction A processing error affected the December quarter 2018 results for mining and primary industries. This is now corrected in this release. ##Revisions table The following table shows previously published and revised quarterly movements for the March 2015–December 2018 quarters’ GDP and expenditure on GDP (GDE). |Previously published and revised quarterly movements| |:------|:------:|:------:|:------:|:------:| | | GDP | | GDE | | Quarter | Previously published | Revised | Previously published | Revised | Mar-15 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.7 | Jun-15 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.9 | Sep-15 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 1.4 | 1.4 | Dec-15 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | Mar-16 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.2 | Jun-16 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 1.1 | Sep-16 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.5 | Dec-16 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.5 | Mar-17 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.5 | Jun-17 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.7 | Sep-17 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 1.0 | Dec-17 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.7 | Mar-18 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | Jun-18 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 1.0 | | Sep-18 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.4 | | Dec-18 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.6 | Source: Stats NZ en-NZ