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The Real Economy
About this project

Open data, plainly explained

The Real Economy is built by Thomas, an economics and finance student at a New Zealand university who has always been interested in how the economy actually works. Official New Zealand economic data is out there, but government sites rarely present it in an easy-to-read way, and rarely as charts at all. This project exists to share that same data more clearly - in plain language, with full source attribution and timestamps throughout - to help New Zealanders better understand how the economy is really performing.

Methodology

Where the data comes from

Indicators are drawn from public sources: Statistics New Zealand (CPI, unemployment, wages, and median household income), the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (the Official Cash Rate and several other rates, currently via a manually-entered, audited fallback while automated access is pending), MBIE (fuel demand and imports, market rent, and pump prices/crude oil/the exchange rate), Employment New Zealand (the adult minimum wage), the Living Wage Movement Aotearoa New Zealand (the voluntary Living Wage rate), and the Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (median house price). Each indicator stores its own source name, URL, and update timestamp.

How charts are calculated

Indexed charts rebase every series to 100 at the start of the chosen baseline year, so very different measures (cents per litre, index points, dollars) can be compared on one axis. “% change since 2020” is always measured from the first observation of 2020 to the latest observation.

Limitations

Indicators are published at different frequencies (weekly, monthly, quarterly). Comparisons across series use each series’ most recent observation at or before a given date, so small timing mismatches are possible. The CPI measures price change, not the absolute cost of living.

How derived figures are calculated

Raw observations are the exact values published by the official source. Derived indicators are calculated by The Real Economy from one or more raw observations - never entered by hand. Every derived indicator on this site documents its formula here.

CPI inflation (annual)

Year-on-year percentage change of the CPI All Groups index (raw indicator: cpi), calculated by The Real Economy from Stats NZ's published index.

CPI inflation (quarterly)

Quarter-on-quarter percentage change of the CPI All Groups index (raw indicator: cpi), calculated by The Real Economy from Stats NZ's published index.

Dubai crude oil price (NZD)

crude-oil-usd (USD/bbl) divided by nzd-usd (USD per NZD), calculated by The Real Economy. Inherits the data status of its inputs.

GDP growth (annual)

Year-on-year percentage change of real GDP - production measure, chain volume, seasonally adjusted (raw indicator: gdp), calculated by The Real Economy from Stats NZ's published series.

Wage growth (annual)

Annual percentage change of the Labour Cost Index (raw indicator: wage-index), as published by Stats NZ.

Real wage growth

"Real" wage growth means wage growth after accounting for inflation - what your pay can actually buy, not just the number on the payslip. We calculate it as the percentage change in the wage index minus the percentage change in the CPI over the same period:

real wage growth ≈ (% change in wage index) − (% change in CPI)

This is an approximation that holds well for the moderate inflation rates seen in New Zealand; it is not compounded geometrically. See the Wages page for the live comparison.

Housing affordability (price-to-income ratio)

We calculate the house-price-to-income ratio as the median house price divided by median annual household income, both for the same period:

price-to-income ratio = median house price ÷ median household income

A ratio above 5 is conventionally considered "severely unaffordable" internationally, though this convention was not designed specifically for the New Zealand market. Estimated mortgage repayments (see the Housing page) assume a standard 30-year table loan and are illustrative, not a quote from any lender.

Privacy and ads

The Real Economy sets no cookies of its own, has no user accounts and stores no personal data. Cloudflare Web Analytics counts page views in aggregate, without cookies or fingerprinting.

The site carries a small number of Google AdSense ads. It has no institutional funding - it's built and maintained by one student, and ad revenue covers hosting and data costs so every chart can stay free, with no subscription or paywall. Ads never influence which data gets shown or how it's presented. Google may use cookies to serve and measure those ads; the privacy policy explains what that means and how to opt out.

Contact

Every figure on this site should trace back to an official source. If you spot one that doesn't match its source, or something that's explained badly, email info@therealeconomy.co.nz with the page and the figure. It'll be checked against the source and fixed if it's wrong.

Suggestions for data to add, and media enquiries, are welcome too.

Source update status

When automated ingestion is enabled, this table shows when each source was last checked and last updated successfully.

SourceUpdate frequencyLast checkedLast successful update
Employment New Zealand (MBIE)annual11 Sep 202611 Sep 2026
Living Wage Movement Aotearoa New Zealandannual13 Sep 202613 Sep 2026
MBIE Energy Statisticsweekly30 Sep 202630 Sep 2026
MBIE Oil Statisticsquarterly29 Sep 20265 Sep 2026
MBIE Tenancy Services (Market Rent)monthly25 Sep 202625 Sep 2026
Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (MCERT)monthly25 Sep 202625 Sep 2026
Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ)monthly30 Oct 202616 Sep 2026
Stats NZmonthly28 Sep 202628 Sep 2026