New Zealand - Capacity Utilization





New Zealand: Capacity Utilization

Mnemonic CU.INZL
Unit %, NSA
Adjustments Not Seasonally Adjusted
Monthly
Data Mar 2024 11.7
Feb 2024 10.8

Series Information

Source Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ)
Release Business Outlook
Frequency Monthly
Start Date 3/31/1988
End Date 3/31/2024

New Zealand: Business

Reference Last Previous Units Frequency
Business Confidence Mar 2024 22.9 34.7 %, NSA Monthly
Capacity Utilization Mar 2024 11.7 10.8 %, NSA Monthly
Change in Inventories 2023 Q4 -1,736 882 Mil. NZD, SA Quarterly
Real Change in Inventories 2023 Q4 -1,309 681 Mil. Ch. 2009/2010 NZD, SA Quarterly

Release Information

Business Outlook is designed to provide a snapshot of business opinions regarding the expected future state of their business and the New Zealand economy overall. The survey provides useful coincident information on the economy and is timelier than official statistics.

Business Outlook is aimed at all business sectors and at all business sizes, since together this better represents the New Zealand economy (which is made up of many small and medium-sized firms) than large corporations alone. By surveying the entire spectrum of businesses types and sizes, not only can National Bank better serve its clients, but both market analysts and businesses people can garner a variety of information about business views at different points of the business cycle.

  • Measurements:
    • Balance of opinion
    • Percent per annum
  • Adjustment: Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
  • Native frequency: Monthly
  • Start date: As early as 1986m5

The survey is not conducted in January.

The source writes:

Business Outlook is a sample survey. That is; only a proportion of the economy is used to represent the economy as a whole. Many official statistics are calculated in a similar manner; therefore – from a theoretical viewpoint – the survey process is not unusual.

Business Outlook is a monthly survey with around 700 respondents. Each firm self-selects its business sector, region of residence, and firm size. And despite the survey’s apparent paucity, the sampling is stratified and collectively exhaustive. Thus, it is less variable and more reliable than a random population sample. Figures 3 and 4 illustrate how encompassing this self-sampling is.

The survey itself asks a variety of questions. For example:

  • a firm’s confidence in future business conditions in 12 month’s time;
  • a firm’s view of where activity in their own firm is heading a year hence;  
  • a firm’s opinion surrounding the expected future movement in unemployment and employment, interest rates, investment in property, plant and equipment, and profits in a year’s time;
  • a firm’s expectation of their product’s price(s) in 3 months time; and
  • the expected level of annual inflation in 12 month’s time.

For the sectors that apply, the survey asks:

  • in which direction a firm anticipates their export volumes will move and the expected change in livestock investment in 12 month’s time;
  • in which direction a firm expects their utilisation of capacity to move in 12 month’s time; and
  • for an indication of the expected change in residential and non-residential building activity in 12 months time.

Changes in corpus

As of 2019m12, the interest rates and unemployment questions were dropped.

Data is revised when new data becomes available.