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 and the date it's actually from.
Is the economy actually growing?
Real GDP - the total value of everything New Zealand produces, adjusted for inflation - verified quarterly back to 1987, not a sample placeholder. This chart shows year-on-year growth, recalculated by this site from Stats NZ's raw series each time new data arrives.
Real GDP level, 1990–present
The size of the economy each quarter - chain volume (inflation-adjusted), seasonally adjusted, in NZD billions.
Source: Stats NZThe Real Economy (opens the full chart page)
Fetched directly from Stats NZ's published National Accounts release, revalidated on every ingestion run, and never silently overwritten - a revision to history is logged, not lost. See methodology for the full pipeline.
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.
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, methodology, 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: dated when it is updated, and linked to the original source every time.
Every figure on this page is real: inflation, fuel prices and median rent are fetched directly from official sources, and the Official Cash Rate is verified through a manually-entered, audited fallback while automated RBNZ access is pending. Nothing here is a placeholder.