This page explains the revisions to the data sources and methods that will be included in the balance of payments and the revised series that will be inputs into the annual national accounts releases for 2025.
We make revisions annually, in line with international best practice, to ensure the statistics continue to reflect our changing world.
Regular annual revisions include:
- updates to international trade
- updates reflecting tax returns
- updates to Quarterly International Investment Survey
- seasonal adjustment.
Revisions fall into three broad categories:
- new or updated information becoming available
- new or updated annual benchmarks
- conceptual or methodology changes.
These revisions will appear in the following upcoming releases:
- Balance of payments and international investment position: June 2025 quarter - release date 17 September 2025
- Balance of payments and international investment position: Year ended 31 March 2025 - release date 30 September 2025
- Gross domestic product: June 2025 quarter - release date 18 September 2025
- National accounts (income and expenditure): Year ended March 2025 - release date 14 November 2025
- National accounts (industry production and investment): Year ended March 2025 - release date 14 November 2025
- National accounts (income, saving, assets, and liabilities): June 2025 quarter - release date 9 October 2025
- Annual balance sheets: 2024 (provisional) - release date 27 November 2025.
International trade updates
The above releases will also include revised data on goods and services from International trade: June 2025 quarter (published on 2 September 2025).
International trade: June 2025 quarter - data sources and methods has more information about these revisions.
Transport services
We have revised the transport services import and export series from September 2016 due to updated respondent data.
The revised data is available in International trade: June 2025 quarter.
Insurance services and current transfers
We have revised insurance services and current transfers back to the March 2021 quarter.
We have received updated data from New Zealand insurers for insurance premiums with overseas reinsurers. A reinsurer is an insurance company that insures the risk of other insurance companies.
These premiums relate to the:
- insurance services received, recorded in the services imports series of the current account
- risk element of insurance premiums recorded as an outflow in the current transfers and secondary income series of the current account.
Investment income updates reflecting tax returns
Each June quarter, we use updated investment income estimates derived from Inland Revenue (IR), to reflect the latest income tax returns. We use this IR data to supplement survey data and improve coverage back to the June 2023 quarter.
We classify all IR data to 'other investment income' in the primary income account, as we cannot distinguish between the different type of income that make up this estimate. This data update affects both primary income inflows and outflows.
Quarterly International Investment Survey (QIIS) updates
We have revised data back to the September 2017 quarter from QIIS.
The main updates reflect updated respondent data.
The following series are affected:
- international investment position
- current account, primary income
- financial account
Seasonal adjustment
COVID-19 disrupted seasonal patterns of economic activity, and Stats NZ adopted measures to manage this, including using additive outlier treatment.
Seasonal adjustment and additive outliers during COVID-19 provides more detail about the challenges posed by the disruptions and how we minimised the effects.
We have now seen more stable seasonal patterns return. For Balance of payments and international investment position: June 2025 quarter, we have removed additive outlier treatment for all seasonally adjusted series from the September 2022 quarter onwards. This includes:
- services exports
- travel services exports
- travel services imports
- transport services imports.
Other revisions to the national accounts in November and December
In addition to balance of payments data revisions feeding into national accounts data series, there will be other revisions to the following:
- National accounts (income and expenditure): Year ended March 2025
- National accounts (industry production and investment): Year ended March 2024.
Stats NZ will publish more information through our website before the November 2025 releases, describing how the revisions will affect key measures, including current-price gross domestic product (GDP).
Stats NZ will show how these changes and other methodological improvements affect the September 2025 quarter GDP, to be published on 18 December 2025. The release will also include revisions from our regular incorporation of annual benchmarks.
Enquiries
Bruce Omundsen
[email protected]
04 931 4600
