Higher producer prices matched by costs

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Thursday 30th August 2001

Prices being paid to New Zealand producers have increased, but so has the cost of inputs.

In the June quarter the Producers Price Index (PPI) shows that output prices rose 1.3% compared with the previous quarter and were 6.1% ahead of the same time last year.

Nearly a third of the increase is from higher prices in the agriculture sector, with livestock and cropping farming outputs jumping 7.8%, mainly from higher livestock prices paid to farmers by meat companies.

The meat and meat product manufacturing outputs index also added to the price rises on the back of higher export returns for beef and sheep meat.

On the other side of the ledger the inputs index rose 1.4% on the previous quarter and is 8.1% higher than the same time last year.

Higher prices for crude oil helped push the latest increased along with higher electricity generation and supply costs. The rises were mainly driven by higher prices paid by electricity retailers to the generators.

Statistics New Zealand says assessing the flow-on effect of the latest PPI increases to future consumer prices is difficult because many of the products are for export and don't flow into consumer inflation.

Comments from our readers

No comments yet