Dairy, meat, and fuel push up producer prices

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

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 1.1 percent in the June 2010 quarter, were the:

• 5.5 percent rise for dairy product manufacturing, reflecting higher export prices
• 6.0 percent rise for livestock and cropping farming, reflecting higher cattle and lamb prices
• 1.4 percent rise for wholesale trade, reflecting higher diesel and petrol prices
• 4.3 percent rise for meat and meat product manufacturing, reflecting higher export prices.

Together, the dairy product manufacturing, livestock and cropping farming, wholesale trade, and meat and meat product manufacturing indexes contributed 59 percent of the overall 1.1 percent increase in the outputs index.

Key influences on the inputs index, which was up 1.4 percent in the June 2010 quarter, were the:

• 3.0 percent rise for wholesale trade, reflecting higher gas condensate and imported crude oil prices
• 8.5 percent rise for meat and meat product manufacturing, reflecting higher cattle and lamb prices
• 2.9 percent rise for dairy product manufacturing, reflecting higher farm-gate milk prices.

Together, the wholesale trade, meat and meat product manufacturing, and dairy product manufacturing indexes contributed 57 percent of the overall 1.4 percent increase in the inputs index.

Output prices rose 1.3 percent overall in the year to the June 2010 quarter, while input prices rose 2.0 percent.