Stats NZ apologises for CPI publishing error

Stats NZ's CPI data showed inflation rose by 4 per cent in the March year. Photo / File

Stats NZ has apologised for an error incurred during the publishing of its consumers price index figures this morning.

The CPI inflation figure for the year to March 2024 is 4.0 per cent.

“The annual CPI inflation figure for the year to March 2024 is 4.0 per cent, however, the data loaded to one of Stats NZ’s systems was incorrectly entered as 3.7 per cent,” Stats NZ said.

“The error affected some of the percentage change series, not the indexes numbers.

“The system is used by the wire agencies, including Reuters, Bloomberg and Macrobond,” Stats NZ said.

“This error is the responsibility of Stats NZ, there was no fault of the wire agencies.

“We apologise to all affected customers,” Jason Attewell, Stats NZ’s general manager economic and environment insights, said.

“The issue was corrected as quickly as possible after Stats NZ became aware.”

Stats NZ acknowledged that the CPI data is widely used, and the incorrect information had wide implications.

The issue was caused by human error and Stats NZ was reviewing its processes to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

“Six of the more than 1700 series that we update for CPI were affected, unfortunately it included our headline inflation number.

“We accept responsibility for this error and acknowledge that it falls short of the standards we expect of ourselves,” Attewell said.

The incorrect data was published in Infoshare and one CSV file. All other CPI data, key facts, a news story and tables that we published were correct.

The erroneous number was enough to push the currency down by about eight basis points against the US dollar to US58.78c.

The currency, which had been under downward pressure from a strong greenback, then rallied to US58.98c.

Market participants said the CPI outcome was likely to push out expectations of when the Reserve Bank would start cutting rates.

In the run-up to Stat’s NZ’s release, market pricing had suggested a cut in the OCR, which sits at 5.5 per cent, was likely in August.

ANZ strategist David Croy said that while the CPI was broadly in line with expectations, there were some “troubling aspects” in the non-tradeables, or domestic, inflation numbers.

“At the headline level, everything is going the Reserve Bank’s way, but at a composite level, it’s not so reassuring,” Croy said.

“There is no smoking gun here for the market if it wants to push for earlier OCR cuts,” he said.

Stats NZ said non-tradeable inflation was 5.8 per cent in the 12 months to the March 2024 quarter, driven by rent, construction of new houses, and cigarettes and tobacco.

Tradeable inflation was 1.6 per cent in the 12 months to the March 2024 quarter, driven by higher petrol and international accommodation prices.

Jamie Gray is an Auckland-based journalist, covering the financial markets and the primary