New Zealand's economy, in plain language.
Independent data on prices, fuel, rent and interest rates. No spin, no jargon, and no figure is ever shown as real unless it actually is.
New Zealand economic snapshot
Latest available value for each indicator, with its source, the date it's actually from, and whether it's live official data or still a placeholder. Cards marked sample or not yet tracked are not real - shown honestly rather than hidden.
A real, verified 110-year price history
The Consumer Price Index is this site's deepest verified series - real Stats NZ data back to 1914, not a sample placeholder. This chart shows annual inflation, recalculated by this site from the raw index each time new data arrives.
Annual inflation (CPI), 1990–present
Year-on-year percentage change in the Consumers Price Index, all groups.
Above zero means prices rose over the past year; below zero means they fell. The Reserve Bank targets 1–3%; sustained readings above that band are usually followed by higher interest rates. The two marked events are the biggest shocks in this chart's history: the Global Financial Crisis pulled inflation down, while COVID-19 pushed it sharply up.
Annual inflation is currently 4.1%, below the 1918-present average of 4.6%.
Neither higher nor lower is simply 'better' here. The Reserve Bank's legislated target is 1–3% annual inflation, aiming for the midpoint over time. Below zero (deflation) is considered just as harmful as high inflation, since it discourages spending and investment.
Fetched directly from Stats NZ's published CPI series, revalidated on every ingestion run, and never silently overwritten - a revision to history is logged, not lost. See methodology for the full pipeline.
Explore the data
Inflation & cost of living
CPI, food prices, electricity: what $100 buys now.
Open page →Wages & real incomes
Wage growth vs inflation, and the minimum wage story.
Open page →Housing affordability
House prices vs incomes, mortgage burdens, rents.
Open page →Fuel prices
Pump prices vs crude oil, and the exchange-rate effect.
Open page →Interest rates
The OCR, mortgage rates, and what they mean for budgets.
Open page →About & methodology
Sources, sample-data policy, and how charts are built.
Open page →Why this site exists
Economic statistics are public, but they are not always easy to read. The Real Economy exists to make New Zealand’s core numbers understandable, comparable and honest: labelled when data is sample, dated when it is updated, and linked to the original source every time.
Inflation and median rent are live from official sources today; the Official Cash Rate is verified through a manually-entered, audited fallback while automated access is pending. Everything else on this page is still exactly what it says it is: a sample placeholder or not yet tracked, never presented as current.