New Zealand CPI for Q1
For the q/q, comes in at +0.3%
- expected is +0.5%
- prior was +0.1%
For the y/y, comes in at +1.5%
- expected is +1.7%
- prior was +1.6%
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That is a little below expectations, and given the market is looking for further RBNZ rate hikes its an excuse to trigger some stops on longs. NZD/USD trading down to 0.8600 and below
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More, from Statistics New Zealand:
- Higher tobacco and housing prices
- Partly countered by seasonally cheaper international air fares, vegetables, and package holidays
- Cigarette and tobacco prices rose 10.2 percent, following an 11.3 percent rise in excise duty in January.
- “The CPI without cigarettes and tobacco showed no change in the March quarter,” prices manager Chris Pike said.
- Prices for housing and household utilities rose 0.7 percent, reflecting higher prices for buying newly built houses (up 1.2 percent), rentals for housing (up 0.6 percent), and property maintenance (up 1.2 percent).
- About half of the latest annual increase came from housing and household utility prices, which increased 3.3 percent.
- “The price of buying a newly built house without land increased 5.1 percent for the year. In Auckland the increase was 5.9 percent and in Canterbury it was 7.6 percent,” Mr Pike said.
- There were also increases for housing rentals (up 2.0 percent), property maintenance (up 4.5 percent), property rates and related services (up 4.2 percent), and household energy (up 2.7 percent).
- Cigarette and tobacco prices increased 10.2 percent and insurance prices increased 5.9 percent for the year.
- The main downward contribution for the year came from cheaper audio-visual and computing equipment (down 10 percent). There were also lower prices for vehicles (down 3.1 percent).
- The strong New Zealand dollar has had a downward influence on the retail prices of internationally traded goods, including cars and appliances.
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More on that point made”The strong New Zealand dollar has had a downward influence …”:
- Q1 consumer price index non-tradeables +1.1% vs previous quarter
- Q1 consumer price index non-tradeables +3.0% vs yr ago
- Tradeables was down 0.7% on the quarter, and down 0.6% on the year
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