Business

Higher producer prices due to energy costs

13:16 pm on 19 August 2008

Energy costs have pushed up producer prices in the three months to June.

Statistics New Zealand says producers' input prices - the cost of goods and services at the farm gate - rose 5.6%, the largest quarterly rise since 1980.

Output prices leapt 3.5%, the largest quarterly rise in 23 years.

BNZ head of research Stephen Toplis says the increases are the result of drought-induced constraints on electricity generation, and are unlikely to continue.

Meanwhile, the Capital Goods Price index rose 1% in the June quarter, due to higher construction prices for new homes and higher prices for machinery.