Fuel drives up producers' prices

Embargoed until 10:45am – 19 November 2008

Fuel drives up producers' prices

Producers’ prices rose in the September 2008 quarter, with output prices up 2.8 percent and input prices up 3.7 percent, Statistics New Zealand said today. For both indexes, the major contribution came from the fuel wholesaling sector within the wholesale trade industry group.

The wholesale trade outputs index rose 4.3 percent in the September 2008 quarter, following a rise of 6.0 percent in the June 2008 quarter. Driving up this index were higher wholesale prices for fuel. In the year to the September 2008 quarter, the wholesale trade outputs index rose 17.3 percent, the largest annual increase since the series began in the June 1994 quarter.

The wholesale trade inputs index rose 8.1 percent in the latest quarter, with higher imported crude oil prices being the major driver of this movement. In the year to the September 2008 quarter, the wholesale trade inputs index rose 25.2 percent, which is also the largest annual increase since the series began.

A rise in the farmgate price for milk (which is shown in the Producers Price Index (PPI) every September quarter) had an effect on both the outputs for dairy cattle farming (up 24.4 percent), and the inputs for dairy product manufacturing (up 20.2 percent). These sub-indexes were the second-largest contributors to the outputs and inputs indexes, respectively, following wholesale trade.

In the year to the September 2008 quarter, the PPI outputs index rose 9.8 percent and the inputs index rose 13.6 percent.

Geoff Bascand
Government Statistician
19 November 2008

ENDS

See also the Hot Off The Press information release Producers Price Index: September 2008 quarter (PDF).

ppisep08qtralltables.xls

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