Dairy prices drive up New Zealand producer prices

The input and output prices of New Zealand producers both rose in the quarter to the end of June on the back of rising dairy prices, the government statistics agency announced Monday. Prices received by producers, as measured by the output producers price index (PPI), rose 1 percent in the June 2013 quarter, while the input PPI, representing the prices of goods and services used by New Zealand producers, rose 0.6 percent, according to Statistics New Zealand. "Higher dairy prices contributed to increases in both the output and input PPI," prices manager Chris Pike said in a statement. The output price index for dairy product manufacturing rose 14 percent in the quarter, led by higher export prices for milk powder, while the input price index for dairy product manufacturing was up 8.6 percent, reflecting higher milk prices paid to dairy farmers. In the year to the June quarter, the output PPI was up 0.8 percent, while the input PPI was unchanged. Meanwhile, the price of purchasing new capital items rose 0.5 percent in the June quarter, according to the capital goods price index (CGPI), also published by Statistics New Zealand Monday. The major upward contributions to the CGPI came from a 1.4- percent rise in the residential buildings price index and a 0.5- percent rise in the non-residential buildings price index. The rises were partly offset by decreases in the price index for transport equipment, which was down 0.3 percent, and the index for plant, machinery, and equipment, which dropped 0.2 percent. In the year to the June quarter, the CGPI rose 0.8 percent.