Annual Balance Sheets 27 November

Annual balance sheets provide estimates of assets, liabilities, and net worth held by New Zealand institutional sectors at a point in time. These sectors include businesses, households, and government.

This release also records the flows between the annual stock balances of non-financial assets, financial assets, and financial liabilities, known as the accumulation accounts.

Estimates updated

Annual balance sheets: 2024 (provisional) provides updated estimates, up to and including the March 2024 year.

Estimates beyond March 2024 are included in the quarterly National accounts (income, savings, assets, and liabilities) release, which will be published in January 2026. The January release will integrate the new annual estimates up to March 2024 as benchmarks and provide a consistent time series through to the September 2025 quarter. The release will also include provisional annual estimates for the March 2025 year.

Key facts

In the year ended March 2024:

• New Zealand's net worth increased 4.2 percent as assets rose more than liabilities
• household net worth increased 3.8 percent, following a decrease of 1.7 percent in the March 2023 year
• registered bank lending increased 3.0 percent, following an increase of 3.6 percent in the March 2023 year.

New Zealand's net worth increases

At 31 March 2024, New Zealand's net worth was nearly $3 trillion, an increase of $119 billion (4.2 percent) from the previous March year.

The household and government sectors are the primary contributors to New Zealand's total net worth. In the March 2024 year, households accounted for the largest share at 84.9 percent, while the combined contribution of the central and local government sectors was 14.4 percent.

Increases in financial and non-financial assets drive higher household net worth

In the year ended March 2024, the net worth of New Zealand households rose to $2.5 trillion, a $92 billion (3.8 percent) increase from the previous year.

The increase in financial assets (up $67.2 billion) was the main driver of the rise in household net worth. Financial assets that increased from the March 2023 year were equity and investment fund shares (up $37.1 billion), insurance and pensions (up $15.3 billion), and currency and deposits (up $14.3 billion).

Increasing residential property valuations also had a significant impact on household net worth. Non-financial assets of the household sector (land and buildings identified as properties that owners live in) increased by $35.8 billion (3.0 percent) from the previous year.

Household financial liabilities (mortgages, consumer borrowing, and student loans) increased $10.9 billion or 3.8 percent from the March 2023 year.

Bank lending growth slows further

In the year ended March 2024, registered banks recorded an increase in total financial assets of $16.7 billion (2.4 percent), following a $21.8 billion increase in the previous year. This increase was led by loans, up by $16.6 billion (3.0 percent), compared with a rise of $18.9 billion (3.6 percent) in the March 2023 year.

Softer lending conditions were also reflected in lower funding requirements, with debt securities liabilities declining 3.6 percent, following a 2.2 percent fall a year earlier.

In contrast, the level of deposits with banks increased this year. These liabilities, which make up the bulk of New Zealand's money supply, grew by 3.9 percent, more than double the rate recorded in the preceding year.

Effects of revisions on household net worth

Annual balance sheets: 2024 (provisional) is the first release of comprehensive estimates of annual balance sheet data for the March 2024 year.

These estimates incorporate higher quality annual data sources and are more accurate than the provisional estimates available in the quarterly National accounts (income, saving, assets, and liabilities) release.

Incorporating higher-quality data led to household net worth for the year ended March 2024 being revised up $57.2 billion from the provisional values in the National accounts (income, saving, assets, and liabilities): June 2025 quarter release, published in October 2025.

Almost the entire revision in household net worth was from increases of $42.4 billion in equity and investment fund shares and $14.2 billion in land values.

These updated values for the March 2024 year will be used as benchmarks in the National accounts (income, saving, assets, and liabilities): September 2025 quarter release on 15 January 2026. Previously published quarterly estimates will be revised at that time.

More data

Use Infoshare to access time-series data on annual balance sheets.

Subject category: Economic indicators
Group: National Accounts - SNA 2008

Definitions and metadata

Annual balance sheets: 2007-2024 - DataInfo+ provides information about data sources and methods used to produce these statistics.

Annual balance sheets: 2024 metadata package - DataInfo+ gives information on updates to previously published estimates of annual balance sheet and accumulation accounts data due to updated data sources and ongoing improvements to sources and methods.

Technical enquiries

Lindsay Beck
[email protected]
04 931 4600

ISSN 2537-7930

Next release

Annual balance sheets: 2025 (provisional) will be released in November 2026.