Dairy and livestock push up producer prices

Producers’ output and input prices rose in the September 2010 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today. Both indexes were strongly influenced by higher prices for dairy and livestock.

The producers price index measures changes in prices received by producers (known as output prices), and changes in the costs of production, excluding labour and depreciation costs (known as input prices).

Key influences on the outputs index, which was up 1.2 percent in the September 2010 quarter, were the:

6.0 percent rise for livestock and cropping farming, reflecting higher cattle and lamb prices
3.9 percent rise for dairy product manufacturing, reflecting higher export prices
5.3 percent rise for dairy cattle farming, reflecting higher farm-gate milk prices.

Together, the livestock cropping and farming, dairy product manufacturing, and dairy cattle farming indexes contributed 38 percent of the overall 1.2 percent rise in output prices in the September 2010 quarter.

Key influences on the inputs index, which was up 0.7 percent in the September 2010 quarter, were the:

7.0 percent rise for meat and meat product manufacturing, reflecting higher livestock prices for cattle and lamb
4.0 percent rise for dairy product manufacturing, reflecting higher farm-gate milk prices.

Together, the meat and meat product manufacturing and the dairy product manufacturing indexes contributed 67 percent of the overall 0.7 percent increase in the inputs index in the September 2010 quarter.

Output prices rose 4.0 percent overall in the year to the September 2010 quarter, while input prices rose 3.8 percent.

Highlights

The producers price index (PPI) outputs index rose 1.2 percent.
Output prices for livestock and cropping farming rose 6.0 percent.
Output prices rose 4.0 percent in the year to the September 2010 quarter.
The PPI inputs index rose 0.7 percent.
Input prices for meat and meat product manufacturing rose 7.0 percent.
Input prices rose 3.8 percent in the year to the September 2010 quarter.