Gross Domestic Product QoQ

Gross domestic product, or GDP, measures the market value of goods and services produced in New Zealand. Stats NZ, the national statistics office, synthesizes business, household, price, government, and trade sources under 2008 SNA, the global accounting standard. The headline is production output in real chain-volume terms, meaning price change removed, adjusted for seasonal patterns, with spending and income splits alongside. It covers domestic output only, not welfare or nominal revenue at current prices, and not per capita or income power splits.

A positive quarterly change means growth versus the prior quarter, while a negative change means contraction. There is no publisher target band or trigger level.

Reference quarters end 31 March, 30 June, 30 September, and 31 December, with release about 11 weeks later. Release is Thursday at 10:45am New Zealand time with real quarterly and yearly growth, industry and spending tables, income notes, charts, and files. Each quarter revises past adjusted growth as seasonal factors are re-estimated, and September quarter data published in December adds annual balancing of supply and use. Errors are corrected when found, and detailed income, saving, assets, and liabilities tables follow shortly after, with methods links and next release date.

Production output moves with industry value added, meaning output less inputs, while spending moves with final demand less imports.

• Manufacturing: goods transformation including food, wood, paper, metal, and machinery output.
• Construction: building and civil work including homes, workplaces, and heavy works.
• Retail trade and accommodation: shop margins, meaning sales less goods cost, plus hotel, restaurant, and bar sales.
• Household consumption: home spending on goods and services, the largest demand part.
• Gross fixed capital formation: additions to fixed assets like buildings, machines, vehicles, and software.
• Exports less imports: NZ goods and services sold abroad, with imports deducted because they are foreign production.

In December 2022 quarter (published 16 March 2023) output fell 0.6% after a 1.7% rise, while spending fell 0.8% and yearly output rose 2.4%. Manufacturing fell 1.9%, retail fell 1.9%, transport fell 3.0%, and arts fell 4.2%, offset by construction up 1.6% and business services up 3.3%. Exports fell 2.2% on dairy and meat, capital formation fell 1.9%, government use fell 2.4%, yet home demand rose 0.2% as exports dragged it down. The release revised past adjusted rates as shock treatments ended and later fixed 1 table cell.

1. Current prices: Build output and spending parts from annual benchmarks, meaning balanced yearly totals, plus quarterly signs like shop, factory, price, and tax data. Identity: current price equals price times volume.
2. Constant prices: Turn each part into constant prices, meaning base-year prices, by repricing quantities, dividing by price trackers, or growing by volume signals. Identity: constant price equals base-year price times volume.
3. Value added: For each industry, value added means output less inputs, dividing both parts by prices, or 1 side only. For example, 1000 less 600 gives 400, then 1060 at 1.03 and 640 at 1.04 give 1029.1 less 615.4, or 413.7.
4. Chaining: Aggregate yearly moves with a Laspeyres index, meaning prior-year price weights, then link years into 2009/10 dollars. Beyond balanced years reuse last weights, called the Laspeyres tail.
5. Benchmarking and seasonal adjustment: Force quarterly sums to match balanced yearly totals where supply equals use, rating forward odd years. Remove seasonal patterns to show trend, adjusting headline output and spending directly each quarter.
6. Spending total: Add home, charity, and government use plus new assets and stock change, plus exports less imports, since imports are foreign output.
7. Growth rates: Quarterly growth equals adjusted real output this quarter divided by last quarter less 1, times 100, with production preferred. For example, adjusted 70400 versus 70000 gives +0.57%, shown as +0.6%.