This page summarises methodological updates for Stats NZ's price indexes for the September 2025 quarter.
Consumers price index
We will publish Consumers price index: September 2025 quarter (CPI) on 20 October 2025.
General methodology
Consumers price index - DataInfo+ describes the methodology used to produce CPI statistics and related metadata.
New data sources and improvements
We incorporated additional administrative (admin) data for international airfares in the CPI September 2025 quarter release. This admin data replaces some prices previously collected online. We have also added more airline routes for the following regions:
- Australia
- North America
- Asia.
We will include additional admin data for food prices in the CPI from the December 2025 quarter. This admin data replaces some of the items we previously collected in-store.
Early childhood education changes from the FamilyBoost scheme
Inland Revenue (IR) has provided data about the rebate households are expected to receive for early childhood education in 2025/26 due to the FamilyBoost scheme. IR expects a total rebate of about $168 million. This compares with an expected $174 million rebate for the 2024/25 year, which was applied to the CPI in the September 2024 quarter.
The $6 million difference will be applied along with any other price movements within early childhood education.
Update to central and local government charges series
We are reviewing the items that contribute towards the central and local government charges series (Series ref: CPIQ.SE9NS3270). Any updates made will be communicated in the September 2025 quarter CPI release.
Update on monthly CPI
Monthly consumers price index - updates on progress summarises our approach and progress on development of the monthly CPI.
We will continue to update this page with our progress on delivering a monthly CPI.
Selected price indexes
Update on rental price indexes − flow measures
We are working with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) on the data requirements for the flow measure of the rental price indexes (RPI), and plan to reinstate the flow indexes once these have been finalised. With the re-introduction of the flow indexes, we will consider whether we can incorporate some updates to the methodology to make the series less volatile and more suitable for forecasting.
When we have more information on potential methodology updates, we will share them with customers for feedback before making final decisions.
Household living-costs price indexes
We will publish Household living-costs price indexes: September 2025 quarter (HLPI) on 28 October 2025.
General methodology
Household living-costs price indexes - DataInfo+ describes the methodology used to produce HLPI statistics and related metadata.
HLPI update
Household living-costs price indexes (HLPI) releases for the March and June 2025 quarters were paused due to technical challenges in updating weights after the Consumers price index review: 2024.
HLPI releases will resume in the September 2025 quarter, scheduled for release on 28 October 2025. We will also publish all data for the March and June 2025 quarters on 28 October, ensuring that the full time series for HLPI will be available.
Household living-costs price indexes review: 2024 - tables and methodology will be released on 21 October 2025.
Enquiries
James Griffin
04 931 4600
[email protected]
