Stats NZ

National accounts (income, saving, assets, and liabilities): December 2021 quarter

This is our experimental section. The data used here is provisional and may be subject to greater updates than other releases.

We have developed new experimental quarterly estimates for institutional sector accounts, balance sheets, and the nominal income measure of quarterly gross domestic product (GDP), to provide more timely data on New Zealand’s economy. These new estimates will be produced each quarter, starting from the March 2021 quarter.

The quarterly nominal income GDP measure provides a more timely measure than the official annual income GDP measure, but we advise caution using it when comparing it against the official GDP and expenditure on GDP measures.

Relationship with gross domestic product section below suggests what to be mindful of when comparing data here with the official GDP and expenditure on GDP measures.

Incorporating data from the annual national accounts section below suggests what to be mindful of when considering the annual and quarterly revisions in the December 2021 quarter, caused by the incorporation of new annual benchmarks up to March 2020 for balance sheets.

National accounts (income, saving, assets, and liabilities): Sources and methods has more detail about methodology for this release.

If you would like to provide us with feedback or comments, please email info@stats.govt.nz.

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Key facts

In the December 2021 quarter compared with the September 2021 quarter (in seasonally adjusted terms):

  • nominal income GDP rose by 4.2 percent
  • nominal expenditure on GDP rose by 3.2 percent
  • gross operating surplus and gross mixed income increased by 11.6 percent
  • compensation of employees increased by 2.5 percent
  • household saving decreased from $4.4 billion to $2.5 billion
  • entrepreneurial income rose 4.5 percent
  • income tax paid by households grew 9.4 percent.

Nominal income GDP rises

Nominal GDP evaluates gross domestic product at current prices, without adjusting to account for price changes from inflation.

Nominal income GDP rose 4.2 percent in the December 2021 quarter, following a revised 2.4 percent drop in the September 2021 quarter. On an annual basis, nominal income GDP increased by 10.1 percent for the year ended December 2021 compared to the year ended December 2020. It is important to note that the annual measures have been more volatile since the emergence of COVID-19, as they are impacted by the timing of the various tightening and easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

Nominal expenditure on GDP rose 3.2 percent in the December 2021 quarter. The main driver of this growth was a rise in household consumption expenditure, up 6.4 percent, with increasing spending on durable goods and services. A 13.7 percent rise in investment in fixed assets also contributed to the growth in nominal expenditure on GDP. All asset types showed an increase in investment this quarter.

Household saving drops but remains high

Household saving shows how much households are saving out of current income (net disposable income). That is, current income less current consumption.

Household spending increasing 6.4 percent to $50.4 billion in the December 2021 quarter, following a decrease of 5.9 percent in the September 2021 quarter. This coincided with the easing of COVID-19 alert level restrictions and a change to the COVID-19 protection framework during the December 2021 quarter, allowing New Zealanders more access to shops and services.

The increase in spending led to a fall of $2.0 billion in household saving, down to $2.5 billion. Despite this decrease, saving levels remained high due to an increase of 2 percent in household disposable income. This growth in income was driven by a rise of 2.5 percent in compensation of employees and 4.5 percent in income of self-employed business owners and partnerships (entrepreneurial income).

The growth of income for households also led to an increase in income tax paid of 9.4 percent.

Compensation of employees rises

Compensation of employees rose 2.5 percent in the December 2021 quarter, following a 1.1 percent rise in the previous quarter. This aligns with the rise in weekly hours paid and the increase in wage rates reported in Labour market statistics: December 2021 quarter.

On an annual basis, compensation of employees rose 8.5 percent for the year ended December 2021.

Gross operating surplus and gross mixed income increases

Gross operating surplus and gross mixed income, which is similar to business profit, rose 11.6 percent, following a revised increase of 1.8 percent in the September 2021 quarter. This was driven by the increase in value added from the production of goods and services in the quarter. Most industries increased this quarter, with manufacturing, business services, construction and wholesale trade having strong rises. This reflects a reduction in the level of COVID-19 restriction compared to the previous quarter.

On an annual basis, gross operating surplus and gross mixed income was up 6.8 percent for the year ended December 2021.

Non-financial business enterprises sector

Gross operating surplus rose 21.9 percent for non-financial business enterprises in the December 2021 quarter. This was driven by manufacturing, business services, construction, wholesale trade, and health care and social assistance industries. This led to an increase in saving $3.5 billion to $7.3 billion in the December 2021 quarter. This follows a $1.1 billion fall in saving during the September 2021 quarter compared to the June 2021 quarter.

Subsidies steady

The level of subsidies paid in the December 2021 quarter remained similar to the September 2021 quarter, at $4.3 billion, due to the lockdown-related wage subsidies continuing to be paid out through to 9 December 2021 (see COVID-19 Wage Subsidy August 2021).

Taxes on production and imports flat

Taxes on production and imports was flat in the December 2021 quarter. This was due to the growth in GST paid offset by the drop in import duties and taxes on products.

On an annual basis, taxes on production and imports rose 11.5 percent for the year ended December 2021. This annual increase in part reflects GST revenue from the 9.5 percent annual increase in household consumption expenditure, influenced by the timing of COVID-19 restrictions. The other contributor to the annual increase was import duties. Goods imports during the 2020 year were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and global supply chain issues, but have increased during the year ended December 2021. As well, changes to the tobacco excise regime at the end of 2020 changed the timing of tobacco imports and contributed to the annual rise in import duties.

Central government net saving decreases

Central government net saving decreased $24 million to -$4.3 billion in the December 2021 quarter. This was strongly influenced by the high levels of subsidies paid as part of the ongoing COVID-19 response. Subsidies paid in the December 2021 quarter was $4.1 billion, a similar amount to the September 2021 quarter.

Income tax received by government was up $1.6 billion to $18.7 billion in the December 2021 quarter, led by increases to company tax receipts and PAYE tax receipts. This reflected the increased level of economic activity as COVID-19 restrictions eased in the December 2021 quarter, with large increases in business sector gross operating surplus and income tax paid.

Income tax received by government was up $1.6 billion to $18.7 billion in the December 2021 quarter, led by increases to company tax receipts and PAYE tax receipts. This reflected the increased level of economic activity as COVID-19 restrictions eased in the December 2021 quarter, with large increases in business sector gross operating surplus and income tax paid. While company tax grew at a higher rate than PAYE tax, the combined value of PAYE tax and other household tax types result in the household sector paying a greater proportion of total income tax paid than the business enterprises sectors.

Central government final consumption expenditure increased $0.9 billion to $17.7 billion in the December 2021 quarter, driven largely by healthcare-related expenditure.

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Subject category: Economic indicators

Group: National accounts – SNA 2008

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About this release

Relationship with gross domestic product

This new release presents a quarterly measure of nominal income GDP, so all three measures of GDP are now compiled and released on a quarterly basis.

The three GDP measures are:

  • income GDP and expenditure on GDP in nominal terms
  • GDP (the production measure, which is our headline measure of economic activity) in volume terms
  • expenditure on GDP in volume terms.

The quarterly nominal income GDP measure is currently experimental, and the following should be noted when comparing it against the official production GDP and expenditure on GDP measures:

  • The data and methods underpinning results in this release are still being refined and may therefore be subject to higher degrees of revision. Any comparison against the official GDP measures should therefore be undertaken with a degree of caution.
  • While conceptually the three measures should align, in practice different data sources and methods underpin their compilation, which can affect the degree of coherence between them. Notably there is a higher degree of uncertainty around data sources and methods during COVID-19 affected periods. See Overview of sources and methods for quarterly gross domestic product: Updates and COVID-19 adjustments for further information.
  • Nominal income GDP is directly linked to the same current price annual benchmarks as expenditure on GDP and as such the profile of these measures are similar for benchmarked periods (currently, up to the March 2020 year).
  • Nominal income GDP has a much shorter timeseries compared to GDP and expenditure on GDP, and this may significantly impact on its seasonal adjustment.

See Gross domestic product: December 2021 quarter for the September 2021 quarter GDP and expenditure on GDP results.

Incorporating data from the annual national accounts

All quarterly national accounts are reconciled to annual benchmarks. This process maintains the quality of the quarterly series over time by including more comprehensive detail only available annually. Annual benchmark updates are normally incorporated into September quarter releases of quarterly accounts. However, for this annual cycle updated balance sheet benchmarks are being incorporated in this quarterly release. It is intended that the timing of future annual balance sheet updates will align with other quarterly measures, with the September 2022 quarter incorporating the March 2021 annual benchmarks.

The release of Annual balance sheets: 2020 (provisional) provides the annual benchmarks for quarterly balance sheets as at March 2020. Benchmarks for earlier years were also revised due to methodology and data source changes described in Data sources 2020 (provisional) – Datainfo+. A change in the methodology for estimating the fixed assets component of Produced non-financial assets was already incorporated in the September 2021 quarterly balance sheet.

This quarterly release also incorporates a change in method for estimating the land component of non-produced non-financial assets, which has resulted in large revisions. While annual benchmarks are based on detailed property data from CoreLogic, post-benchmark quarters have been extrapolated using CoreLogic House Price Index information. For non-residential property, such as offices and farms, this quarterly indicator has been scaled to align with movements measured in property owned by central government. This has resulted in revisions to non-produced non-financial assets for the non-financial business enterprises sector in particular, which flows through to equity liabilities of the sector, and in turn causes large revisions to household equity assets. More details are available at National accounts (income, saving, assets, and liabilities) – DataInfo+. While we consider this a considerable improvement in non-residential estimation in the current environment, we are continuing to explore further improvements. There is therefore potential for further revision, and we have incorporated the methodology change now in the spirit of releasing experimental estimates.

Definitions and metadata 

Quarterly national accounts: (income, saving, assets, and liabilities) – data collection and methodology – DataInfo+ provides the data sources and general methodology used to produce these statistics.

Quarterly national accounts: (income, saving, assets, and liabilities) – concepts – DataInfo+ provides the definitions of terms used in this release.

Quarterly national accounts: (income, saving, assets, and liabilities): December 2021 quarter – changes and revisions – Data info+ has details of revisions for this release.

ISBN 978-1-99-003274-5

Next release

National accounts (income, saving, assets, and liabilities): March 2022 quarter will be released in July 2022.

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