The consumers price index (CPI) measures the rate of price change of goods and services purchased by New Zealand households.
24 January 2024: This release incorporates corrections to the following statistics:
- Quarterly weighted average prices – due to an error that began in 2019, some of these prices differ by one or two cents, with a small number of series having larger differences. The error is limited to the weighted average prices and does not impact any index.
- Petrol and diesel prices – due to an error in the September 2023 quarter, we have included a catch-up movement in the December 2023 quarter for series related to these prices. The movement for the past six months is accurate. The error did not impact ‘CPI all groups’.
Key facts
Inflation rate for the December 2023 quarter:
- quarterly inflation rate was 0.5 percent
- annual inflation rate was 4.7 percent
- quarterly non-tradeable inflation rate was 1.1 percent
- annual non-tradeable inflation rate was 5.9 percent
- quarterly tradeable inflation rate was -0.2 percent
- annual tradeable inflation rate was 3.0 percent.
Quarterly change
In the December 2023 quarter, the CPI rose 0.5 percent (0.7 percent with seasonal adjustment).
- Housing and household utilities rose 0.8 percent, influenced by:
- rent (up 1.1 percent)
- construction (up 0.7 percent)
- household energy (up 1.9 percent).
- Food fell 1.2 percent, influenced by:
- fruit and vegetables (down 6.4 percent)
- grocery food (down 0.7 percent)
- meat, poultry and fish (down 1.1 percent).
- Miscellaneous goods and services rose 1.5 percent, influenced by:
- insurance (up 3.3 percent)
- other miscellaneous services (up 1.3 percent)
- personal effects (up 1.8 percent).
| Quarter | Quarterly percentage change |
| Dec-19 | 0.5 |
| Mar-20 | 0.8 |
| Jun-20 | -0.5 |
| Sep-20 | 0.7 |
| Dec-20 | 0.5 |
| Mar-21 | 0.8 |
| Jun-21 | 1.3 |
| Sep-21 | 2.2 |
| Dec-21 | 1.4 |
| Mar-22 | 1.8 |
| Jun-22 | 1.7 |
| Sep-22 | 2.2 |
| Dec-22 | 1.4 |
| Mar-23 | 1.2 |
| Jun-23 | 1.1 |
| Sep-23 | 1.8 |
| Dec-23 | 0.5 |
| Group | Percentage point contribution |
| Food | -0.195 |
| Alcoholic beverages and tobacco | 0.088 |
| Clothing and footwear | 0.033 |
| Housing and household utilities | 0.211 |
| Housing contents and services | 0.021 |
| Health | 0.081 |
| Transport | -0.011 |
| Communication | 0.065 |
| Recreation and culture | 0.101 |
| Education | 0 |
| Miscellaneous goods and services | 0.105 |
Annual change
For the 12 months to the December 2023 quarter, the CPI inflation rate was 4.7 percent.
- Housing and household utilities increased 4.8 percent, influenced by:
- rent (up 4.5 percent)
- construction (up 3.6 percent)
- local authority rates and payments (up 9.6 percent).
- Food increased 5.7 percent, influenced by:
- grocery food (up 6.7 percent)
- restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food (up 7.4 percent)
- non-alcoholic beverages (up 5.8 percent).
- Alcoholic beverages and tobacco increased 8.1 percent, influenced by:
- cigarettes and tobacco (up 11.5 percent)
- alcoholic beverages (up 5.6 percent).
| Quarter | Annual percentage change |
| Dec-19 | 1.9 |
| Mar-20 | 2.5 |
| Jun-20 | 1.5 |
| Sep-20 | 1.4 |
| Dec-20 | 1.4 |
| Mar-21 | 1.5 |
| Jun-21 | 3.3 |
| Sep-21 | 4.9 |
| Dec-21 | 5.9 |
| Mar-22 | 6.9 |
| Jun-22 | 7.3 |
| Sep-22 | 7.2 |
| Dec-22 | 7.2 |
| Mar-23 | 6.7 |
| Jun-23 | 6 |
| Sep-23 | 5.6 |
| Dec-23 | 4.7 |
| Group | Percentage point contribution |
| Food | 1.046 |
| Alcoholic beverages and tobacco | 0.562 |
| Clothing and footwear | 0.151 |
| Housing and household utilities | 1.338 |
| Housing contents and services | 0.054 |
| Health | 0.137 |
| Transport | 0.484 |
| Communication | 0.09 |
| Recreation and culture | 0.351 |
| Education | 0.071 |
| Miscellaneous goods and services | 0.416 |
Country | 12-month inflation rate | Time reference |
New Zealand | 4.7 percent | December 2023 |
Australia | 4.3 percent* | November 2023 |
United Kingdom | 4.0 percent** | December 2023 |
United States of America | 3.4 percent | December 2023 |
OECD average | 5.4 percent | November 2023 |
Canada | 3.4 percent | December 2023 |
Japan | 2.6 percent | December 2023 |
European area | 2.4 percent | November 2023 |
European Union | 3.1 percent | November 2023 |
* Australia’s inflation rate is taken from the monthly indicator release. ** United Kingdom’s CPI figure is not their headline figure, which is ‘Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH)’. | ||
OECD Inflation has more data on international inflation rates.
Trimmed-mean measures
The trimmed-mean measures – which exclude extreme price movements – ranged from 5.0 to 4.9 percent in the 12 months to the December 2023 quarter. This indicates that underlying inflation is higher than the 4.7-percent increase in the CPI.
In the December 2023 quarter, quarterly trimmed means ranged between 0.6 and 0.7 percent.
For the 12 months to the December 2023 quarter:
- CPI excluding food increased 4.5 percent
- CPI excluding housing and household utilities increased 4.7 percent
- CPI excluding alcoholic beverages and tobacco increased 4.5 percent
- CPI excluding food group, household energy subgroup, and vehicle fuels increased 4.1 percent.
More data
Use Infoshare to access the CPI time series:
Subject category: Economic indicators
Group: Consumers price index
Definitions and metadata
Consumers price index concepts – DataInfo+ gives definitions of terms used in this release and general methodology used to produce the CPI and related metadata.
Consumers price index – DataInfo+ gives general methodology used to produce the CPI and related metadata.
Technical enquiries
Ari Palsson
04 931 4600
[email protected]
ISSN 1178-0452
Next release
Consumers price index: March 2024 quarter will be released on 17 April 2024.
