Prices received and paid by producers fall

Prices received by New Zealand producers, as measured by the output producers price index (PPI), fell 0.9 percent in the September 2012 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today.

The input PPI, representing the prices of goods and services used by New Zealand producers, fell 1.0 percent.

"Lower electricity generation prices and milk prices contributed to both the output and input PPI falls in the September 2012 quarter," prices manager Chris Pike said.

"Lower imported crude oil prices also influenced the fall in the input PPI."

In the September 2012 quarter, the electricity and gas supply output price index was down 11.5 percent while the input price index was down 15.0 percent. These decreases reflect lower generation prices that were due to higher hydro-storage and spot-market conditions.

The output price index for dairy product manufacturing fell 10.0 percent, reflecting lower prices for whole and skim milk powder. Dairy farmers received lower farm-gate milk prices, which resulted in lower dairy cattle farming output prices (down 9.4 percent).

Petroleum manufacturers paid less for imported crude oil. The input price index for the petroleum and coal product manufacturing industry fell 9.3 percent.

This is the largest quarterly fall since a 28.6 percent fall in the March 2009 quarter.

In the year to the September 2012 quarter, the output PPI was down 0.6 percent, while the input PPI was up 0.3 percent.