National Accounts: March 2025 Quarter

We have developed experimental quarterly estimates for institutional sector accounts and balance sheets to provide more timely data on New Zealand's economy. We have published these experimental estimates on a quarterly basis since the first release for the March 2021 quarter.

The quarterly income measure of gross domestic product (GDPI), along with total economy compensation of employees, gross operating surplus and gross mixed income, taxes on production and imports, and subsidies, became official in the December 2023 quarter and were most recently published in Gross domestic product: March 2025 quarter on 19 June 2025.

These measures are included in table 1.1 (Consolidated accounts of the nation, gross domestic product and expenditure account) of the consolidated accounts tables in this release, in actual and seasonally adjusted terms, and remain as previously published in the Gross domestic product release.

Note: we have amended the transaction labels of several series in the institutional sector accounts CSV and in the institutional sector accounts Excel tables. The transaction labels (series names) for cross-border flows of reinvested earnings and investment income are now generic across all sectors in which they occur, on the income payable and income receivable sides, respectively. The series reference identifiers for these transaction types remain unchanged.

Key facts

Quarterly income and outlay accounts

In the March 2025 quarter, compared with the December 2024 quarter (in seasonally adjusted terms):

• household saving decreased $392 million to -$1.6 billion
• household net disposable income rose 1.5 percent ($922 million):
  • compensation of employees rose 1.5 percent ($722 million)
  • social assistance benefits in cash rose 2.5 percent ($276 million)
  • income of self-employed businesses (entrepreneurial income) received by households was little changed (down 0.2 percent)
  • interest received by households fell 6.6 percent ($246 million)
• household final consumption expenditure rose 2.2 percent ($1.3 billion)
• non-financial business enterprises saving rose $492 million to $3.4 billion
• interest received by financial business enterprises fell 6.5 percent ($960 million)
• interest paid by financial business enterprises fell 4.5 percent ($604 million).

Quarterly balance sheets

Quarterly balance sheet values are not seasonally adjusted.

In the March 2025 quarter, compared with the December 2024 quarter:

• household net worth decreased $25.4 billion (1.0 percent):
  • land value fell $23.8 billion (3.4 percent)
  • equity and investment share assets fell $5.3 billion
  • insurance and pension assets rose $2.1 billion
  • value of buildings rose $4.6 billion
• non-financial business enterprises net worth increased $6.8 billion (37 percent)
  • financial liabilities fell $7.3 billion
  • financial assets rose $3.9 billion
  • non-financial assets (land and buildings) fell $4.4 billion
• central government net worth decreased $4.8 billion (1.6 percent):
  • debt security liabilities rose $10.3 billion (5.3 percent)
  • accounts receivable assets fell $2.6 billion (6.6 percent)
  • equity and investment fund share assets fell $2.1 billion (1.4 percent)
  • currency and deposits rose $9.1 billion (16 percent).

Household saving falls in March 2025 quarter

Household saving shows how much households are saving out of their current income (net disposable income) - that is, current income less current consumption.

Household saving fell $392 million to -$1.6 billion in the March 2025 quarter. The fall follows:

• a $513 million rise in the December 2024 quarter
• a $350 million fall in the September 2024 quarter.

Household net disposable income increased 1.5 percent ($922 million) in the March 2025 quarter, while household spending (final consumption expenditure) increased 2.2 percent ($1.3 billion).

The increase in net disposable income was driven by rises in compensation of employees (up $722 million or 1.5 percent) and social assistance benefits in cash (up $276 million or 2.5 percent), partly offset by a fall in interest received by households ($246 million or 6.6 percent).

Total income payable was little changed at $24.9 billion. The largest rise was in pension fund contributions (up 1.9 percent or $63 million); the largest fall was in interest paid by households (down 2.0 percent or $61 million).

Interest falls in the March 2025 quarter

Interest received by financial business enterprises fell 6.5 percent ($960 million) in the March 2025 quarter. Interest paid by financial business enterprises also fell, down 4.5 percent or $604 million.

These movements follow falls in both interest received and interest paid in the December 2024 quarter, consistent with recent falls in the official cash rate (OCR).

Interest received in non-financial business enterprises in the March 2025 quarter was down 5.3 percent ($78 million), with interest payments also decreasing, down 9.3 percent ($556 million).

Household interest also declined in the March 2025 quarter, with interest received down 6.6 percent ($246 million) and interest paid down 2.0 percent ($61 million).

Household interest payments do not include interest paid on rental property mortgages, as rental properties are almost entirely included in the non-financial business enterprises sector. Instead, interest payments by landlords are indirectly captured in the household sector account as part of calculating entrepreneurial income.

In general, lower interest payments by landlords result in larger entrepreneurial income flows to the household sector.

Quarterly balance sheets

Note: quarterly balance sheet series are not seasonally adjusted.

Household net worth fell in March 2025 quarter

Household net worth, the value of all assets owned by households less the value of their liabilities, fell $25.4 billion to $2,442 billion in the March 2025 quarter.

A decrease in total assets ($22.0 billion) was partly offset by a rise in total financial liabilities ($3.4 billion).

In the year ended March 2025, household net worth fell $23.1 billion (0.9 percent), following a rise of $61.2 billion (2.5 percent) in the year ended March 2024.

Total financial assets were little changed (down $2.7 billion or 0.2 percent) in the March 2025 quarter, following a rise of $16.6 billion in the December 2024 quarter.

A fall in equity and investment fund share assets (down $5.3 billion) was partly offset by a rise in insurance and pension assets (up $2.1 billion).

Equity and investment fund share assets of households (household equity) includes the value of rental properties less the associated mortgages held against them.

Total non-financial assets fell $19.2 billion (1.6 percent) in the March 2025 quarter, following a rise of $14.0 billion in the December 2024 quarter and a fall of $1.2 billion in the September 2024 quarter.

For the household sector, the non-financial asset class translates to owner-occupied residential property. The rise in total non-financial assets in the March 2025 quarter was led by a fall in the value of land (down $23.8 billion or 3.4 percent), partly offset by a rise in the value of residential buildings (up $4.6 billion or 0.9 percent).

Total financial liabilities rose $3.4 billion (1.1 percent), driven by a rise in household residential mortgages, which comprise much of this total liability (around 90 percent).

More data

Use Infoshare to access national accounts time series.

Subject category: Economic indicators

Group: National accounts - SNA 2008

CSV files for download - the latest data from our information releases.

Definitions and metadata

Quarterly national accounts: (income, saving, assets, and liabilities) - data collection and methodology - DataInfo+ provides the data sources and general methodology used to produce these statistics.

Quarterly national accounts: (income, saving, assets, and liabilities) - concepts - DataInfo+ provides the definitions of terms used in this release.

Quarterly national accounts: (income, saving, assets, and liabilities): March 2025 quarter - changes and data updates - DataInfo+ has details of data updates for this release.

Technical enquiries

Lindsay Beck
[email protected]
04 931 4600

ISBN 978-1-991307-71-2

Next release

National accounts (income, saving, assets, and liabilities): June 2025 quarter will be released on 9 October 2025.