Statistics New Zealand

04/17/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/16/2024 19:22

Consumers price index: March 2024 quarter

Consumers price index: March 2024 quarter

17 April 2024, 10:45am

The consumers price index (CPI) measures the rate of price change of goods and services purchased by New Zealand households.

17 April 2024: We have replaced the file Consumers price index: March 2024 quarter - Infoshare data - CSV to correct percentage changes. The written material, graphs, and Excel tables are unaffected.

The correct figures can be accessed via the file Consumers price index: March 2024 quarter - Infoshare data - CSV (updated) below.

Key facts

Inflation rate for the March 2024 quarter:

  • quarterly inflation rate was 0.6 percent
  • annual inflation rate was 4.0 percent
  • quarterly non-tradeable inflation rate was 1.6 percent
  • annual non-tradeable inflation rate was 5.8 percent
  • quarterly tradeable inflation rate was -0.7 percent
  • annual tradeable inflation rate was 1.6 percent.

Quarterly change

In the March 2024 quarter, the CPI rose 0.6 percent (0.7 percent with seasonal adjustment).

  • Alcoholic beverages and tobacco rose 3.4 percent, due to:
    • cigarettes and tobacco (up 6.5 percent)
    • alcoholic beverages (up 1.0 percent)
  • Recreation and culture rose 2.4 percent, due to:
    • accommodation services (up 6.7 percent)
    • recreational and cultural services (up 2.0 percent).
  • Housing and household utilities rose 0.7 percent, due to:
    • rent (up 1.2 percent)
    • construction (up 0.8 percent)
    • household energy (up 0.4 percent).

The 0.6 percent rise in the overall CPI was partly offset by:

  • Transport fell 2.5 percent, due to:
    • passenger transport services (down 6.3 percent)
    • private transport supplies and services (down 1.4 percent)
    • purchase of vehicles (down 1.5 percent).
  • Graph
  • Table
Created with Highcharts 5.0.14Percentage changeConsumers price index, quarterly percentage change, March 2020-March 2024 quartersMar-20Jun-20Sep-20Dec-20Mar-21Jun-21Sep-21Dec-21Mar-22Jun-22Sep-22Dec-22Mar-23Jun-23Sep-23Dec-23Mar-24-10123Stats NZ

Consumers price index, quarterly percentage change, March 2020-March 2024 quarters

Created with Highcharts 5.0.14Percentage changeConsumers price index, quarterly percentage change, March 2020-March 2024 quartersQuarterly percentage changeMar-20Jun-20Sep-20Dec-20Mar-21Jun-21Sep-21Dec-21Mar-22Jun-22Sep-22Dec-22Mar-23Jun-23Sep-23Dec-23Mar-24-10123Stats NZ
Quarter Quarterly percentage change
Mar-20 0.8
Jun-20 -0.5
Sep-20 0.7
Dec-20 0.5
Mar-21 0.8
Jun-21 1.3
Sep-21 2.2
Dec-21 1.4
Mar-22 1.8
Jun-22 1.7
Sep-22 2.2
Dec-22 1.4
Mar-23 1.2
Jun-23 1.1
Sep-23 1.8
Dec-23 0.5
Mar-24 0.6
  • Graph
  • Table
Created with Highcharts 5.0.14Percentage points contributionQuarterly percentage point contribution to consumers price index, by group, March 2024 quarterFoodAlcoholic beverages and tobaccoClothing and footwearHousing and household utilitiesHousing contents and servicesHealthTransportCommunicationRecreation and cultureEducationMiscellaneous goods and services-0.35-0.3-0.25-0.2-0.15-0.1-0.0500.050.10.150.20.25Stats NZ

Quarterly percentage point contribution to consumers price index, by group, March 2024 quarter

Created with Highcharts 5.0.14Percentage points contributionQuarterly percentage point contribution to consumers price index, by group, March 2024 quarterPercentage point contributionFoodAlcoholic beverages and tobaccoClothing and footwearHousing and household utilitiesHousing contents and servicesHealthTransportCommunicationRecreation and cultureEducationMiscellaneous goods and services-0.35-0.3-0.25-0.2-0.15-0.1-0.0500.050.10.150.20.25Stats NZ
Group Percentage point contribution
Food 0.08
Alcoholic beverages and tobacco 0.229
Clothing and footwear 0.004
Housing and household utilities 0.198
Housing contents and services -0.052
Health 0.064
Transport -0.338
Communication 0.002
Recreation and culture 0.217
Education 0.059
Miscellaneous goods and services 0.137

Annual changes

For the 12 months to the March 2024 quarter, the CPI inflation rate was 4.0 percent:

  • Housing and household utilities increased 4.5 percent, due to:
    • rent (up 4.7 percent)
    • construction (up 3.3 percent)
    • property rates and related services (up 9.6 percent).
  • Recreation and culture increased 5.6 percent, due to:
    • accommodation services (up 10.6 percent)
    • recreational and cultural services (up 7.4 percent)
    • other recreational equipment and supplies (up 3.6 percent).
  • Alcoholic beverages and tobacco increased 7.4 percent, due to:
    • cigarettes and tobacco (up 10.4 percent)
    • alcoholic beverages (up 5.0 percent).
  • Graph
  • Table
Created with Highcharts 5.0.14Percentage changeConsumers price index, annual percentage change, March 2020-March 2024 quartersMar-20Jun-20Sep-20Dec-20Mar-21Jun-21Sep-21Dec-21Mar-22Jun-22Sep-22Dec-22Mar-23Jun-23Sep-23Dec-23Mar-2402468Stats NZ

Consumers price index, annual percentage change, March 2020-March 2024 quarters

Created with Highcharts 5.0.14Percentage changeConsumers price index, annual percentage change, March 2020-March 2024 quartersAnnual percentage changeMar-20Jun-20Sep-20Dec-20Mar-21Jun-21Sep-21Dec-21Mar-22Jun-22Sep-22Dec-22Mar-23Jun-23Sep-23Dec-23Mar-2402.557.5Stats NZ
Quarter Annual percentage change
Mar-20 2.5
Jun-20 1.5
Sep-20 1.4
Dec-20 1.4
Mar-21 1.5
Jun-21 3.3
Sep-21 4.9
Dec-21 5.9
Mar-22 6.9
Jun-22 7.3
Sep-22 7.2
Dec-22 7.2
Mar-23 6.7
Jun-23 6
Sep-23 5.6
Dec-23 4.7
Mar-24 4
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Created with Highcharts 5.0.14Percentage point contributionAnnual percentage point contribution to consumers price index, by group, March 2024 quarterFoodAlcoholic beverages and tobaccoClothing and footwearHousing and household utilitiesHousing contents and servicesHealthTransportCommunicationRecreation and cultureEducationMiscellaneous goods and services00.10.20.30.40.50.60.70.80.911.11.21.3Stats NZ

Annual percentage point contribution to consumers price index, by group, March 2024 quarter

Created with Highcharts 5.0.14Percentage point contributionAnnual percentage point contribution to consumers price index, by group, March 2024 quarterPercentage point contributionFoodAlcoholic beverages and tobaccoClothing and footwearHousing and household utilitiesHousing contents and servicesHealthTransportCommunicationRecreation and cultureEducationMiscellaneous goods and services00.10.20.30.40.50.60.70.80.911.11.21.3Stats NZ
Group Percentage point contribution
Food 0.439
Alcoholic beverages and tobacco 0.516
Clothing and footwear 0.159
Housing and household utilities 1.246
Housing contents and services 0.017
Health 0.18
Transport 0.285
Communication 0.079
Recreation and culture 0.521
Education 0.083
Miscellaneous goods and services 0.475
Annual inflation, international comparisons

Country

12-month inflation rate

Time reference

New Zealand

4.0percent

March 2024

Australia

3.4 percent*

February 2024

United Kingdom

3.4 percent**

February 2024

United States of America

3.5 percent

March 2024

OECD average

5.7 percent

February 2024

Canada

2.8 percent

February 2024

Japan

2.8 percent

February 2024

European area

2.6 percent

February 2024

European Union

2.8 percent

February 2024

* Australia's inflation rate is taken from the monthly indicator release.

** United Kingdom's CPI figure is not their headline figure, which is 'Consumer Prices Index including

owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH)'.


OECD Inflation has more data on international inflation rates.

Trimmed-mean measures

The trimmed-mean measures - which excludes extreme price movements - ranged from 4.4 to 4.6 percent in the 12 months to March 2024 quarter. This indicates that underlying inflation is higher than the 4.0 percent increase in the CPI.

In the March 2024 quarter, quarterly trimmed-means ranged between 0.7 and 0.8 percent.

For the 12 months to the March 2024 quarter:

  • CPI excluding food increased 4.4 percent
  • CPI excluding housing and household utilities increased 3.9 percent
  • CPI excluding alcoholic beverages and tobacco increased 3.8 percent
  • CPI excluding food group, household energy subgroup, and vehicle fuels increased 4.1 percent.

More data

Use Infoshare to access the CPI time series:

Subject category: Economic indicators
Group: Consumers price index

Definitions and metadata

Consumers price index concepts - DataInfo+ gives definitions of terms used in this release and general methodology used to produce the CPI and related metadata.

Consumers price index - DataInfo+ gives general methodology used to produce the CPI and related metadata.

Media enquiries

Sandi Reily
021 285 9191
[email protected]

Technical enquiries

Alex Heath
04 931 4600
[email protected]

ISSN 1178-0452

Next release

Consumers price index: June 2024 quarter will be released on 17 July 2024.