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Stats NZ reported that New Zealand’s all-groups consumers price index rose 0.7% in the September 2026 quarter and was 3.7% higher than a year earlier. The information release was published on 22 October and measures prices paid by New Zealand households. The quarterly and annual rates compare different periods: June to September 2026, and September 2025 to September 2026 respectively.
The annual increase was uneven across the basket. Electricity prices were 9.3% higher than a year earlier and contributed 7.2% of the 3.7% overall rise, according to Stats NZ’s contribution measure. Petrol was up 19.1% annually and contributed 17.5%. Purchase of housing rose 3.2%, accounting for 7.9% of the total increase. These contribution shares explain how items fed into the aggregate index; they are not the percentage share of household budgets spent on those items.
The quarterly picture differed. Petrol prices fell 6.5% from the June quarter, making them the largest downward contributor, while other vehicle fuels and lubricants fell 15.5%. International air transport rose 14.3%, local-authority rates and payments increased 6.2%, and vegetables rose 10.5%. Stats NZ said international airfares were the largest upward contributor to quarterly inflation. The opposite directions in quarterly and annual petrol movements show why the comparison window must accompany any price-change figure.
Housing and household utilities contributed 0.347 percentage points to the quarterly increase, the largest group contribution in the release. Food contributed 0.196 points, while communication subtracted 0.041 points. Over the year, transport contributed 1.413 points and housing and household utilities 0.976 points. These are percentage-point contributions to the index movement, not independent inflation rates for each broad group.
Stats NZ separates tradeable and non-tradeable inflation. Tradeable prices, influenced by foreign markets, rose 4.3% annually; non-tradeables rose 3.3%. Petrol and international air transport were among the upward tradeable items. Within non-tradeables, purchase of housing and electricity were prominent upward contributors. The agency cautions that non-tradeable goods and services can still use inputs exposed to foreign competition, so the labels do not mean their prices are insulated from global factors.
The release also says 85.5% of CPI items increased in price over the year, and 54.9% rose by more than 3.0%, up from 38.5% in the year to June. This distribution gives a broader view than the headline average but still does not describe every household’s personal inflation rate. Stats NZ will publish the December-quarter CPI on 27 January 2027; it plans to add a monthly CPI from 2027 while continuing quarterly releases.
The headline annual rate therefore sits beside a broad spread of item-level movements: the published distribution shows both falling prices and a larger share of items rising above 3% than in the previous quarter. It remains an aggregate measure built from the CPI basket and its published weights.