Stats NZ will begin publishing indexes for electricity and gas as part of the monthly selected price indexes (SPI).
The April 2025 SPI, scheduled for release on 15 May 2025, will be the first to include the indexes, which will be part of the housing and household utilities group.
General manager and macroeconomic spokesperson Jason Attewell said this is the next step in Stats NZ's continued commitment to improving and modernising the economic data it produces.
"The cost of electricity and gas prices are important to New Zealanders, especially as we head into winter. Adding these components to our monthly release now will provide decision makers and the public more timely information about energy costs," Attewell said.
"The selected price indexes were developed to assist forecasters, including the Reserve Bank and Treasury, by providing more timely information about inflation pressures in the New Zealand economy. We continue to improve the coverage of the SPI, and the electricity and gas additions are the latest example of that."
Stats NZ launched the monthly SPI release in November 2023. It includes the entire food and alcoholic beverages and tobacco groups, together with rental price indexes, parts of the transport group, and the accommodation services sub-group.
The addition of electricity and gas indexes means the monthly SPI now covers 46.5 percent of the consumers price index (CPI) basket.
