Discount Rates and CPI Assumptions for Accounting Valuation Purposes

The Treasury publishes here a table of risk-free discount rates and consumer price index (CPI) assumptions that must be used in certain accounting valuations for the purpose of preparing the Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand.

This table of rates applies to all Government reporting entities submitting valuations to Treasury for:

• valuing insurance claims liabilities under PBE IFRS 4 Insurance Contracts
• valuing employee benefits such as pension obligations, long service leave and retiring leave under PBE IPSAS 25 Employee Benefits, and
• building a risk-adjusted discount rate for valuing student loans.

These rates may be applied to other valuations where a risk-free discount rate or CPI assumption is used. In these cases, the rates may either be used unadjusted, or as a building block to calculate another assumption at your discretion.

The Treasury risk-free discount rates and CPI inflation assumptions are based on a framework, including several parameters, summarised in eight steps. This framework has been kept unchanged since 2010, although the assumptions under each step are subject to review, generally every three years, and have changed over time in some cases.

In addition to the table of rates, the Treasury has published the associated Methodology which comprises seven papers (see below); the original methodology dated July 2010 and six subsequent review papers dated May 2012, June 2013, December 2015, July 2019, July 2020 and June 2021.

The risk-free discount rate methodology uses at its starting point the market yield curve of New Zealand Government Bonds as the most appropriate proxy for the return on a very safe asset.

Publishing dates

The Treasury will publish here risk-free discount rates and CPI assumptions as at 30 June, 30 September, 31 December, 31 January and 31 May. These rates will be published within one week of the "as at" date.

Tables of Risk-free Discount Rates and CPI Assumptions at 31 December 2022 for Accounting Valuation Purposes

The following table shows the risk-free rates to be used for certain accounting valuations as at 31 December 2022. Note that a history of these rates, starting with the 30 June 2010 rates, is available in the Excel spreadsheets below.

The following table shows the CPI assumption rates to be used for certain accounting valuations as at 31 December 2022.

Using the Treasury Risk-free Discount Rates

Valuation models will use either forward or spot rates. Both of these rates have been provided.

Ideally, forward rates should be used for the accounting valuations. However, the ability to use forward rates will be dependent on the type of valuation programme or model used. The programme or model must be able to cope with different discount rates for each year in order to use forward rates.

If the programme or model only requires a single discount rate then select the spot rate that matches the duration of cash flows. For example, if the duration of cash flows is eight years, and the model requires a single rate, select the Year 8 spot rate from the table.

The annual forward and spot rates provided are to match annual cash flows from the "as at" date the rates are published. For example the 1 year rate published at 31 December 2022 is the risk-free rate to match the cash flow for the period 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2024.

Auditor Confirmation at 30 June 2022

The Office of the Auditor-General considers the table of risk-free discount rates and CPI assumptions as at 30 June 2022 have been determined in accordance with the associated methodology document (The Treasury Risk-free Discount Rates and CPI: Assumptions for Accounting and Valuation Purposes - July 2022). The rates and CPI assumptions are appropriate to use in:

• valuing insurance claims liabilities under PBE IFRS 4 Insurance Contracts
• valuing employee benefits such as pension obligations, long service leave, and retiring leave under PBE IPSAS 39 Employee Benefits, and
• building a risk-adjusted discount rate to value student loans.

The Treasury's Long Service Leave and Retiring Leave Models (per TC 2009/06)

If you use the Treasury Excel models to calculate long service leave and retiring leave obligations (per Treasury Circular 2009/06 below), only three risk-free discount rates can be used. This allows for the use of three forward rates. These three forward rates as at 30 June 2022 are published below.

However, if you know the average duration of future cash flows being valued, you can choose the single spot rate for that year, rather than three forward rates. For example, if you know the duration of cash flows at 30 June 2022 is on average 10 years, you could use the 10 year spot rate of 3.94% from the published table of rates at 30 June 2022 and enter it as all three discount rate assumptions in the model.

While the Treasury provides economic assumptions here, the model can be run using different discount rates and salary assumptions to assess how sensitive the valuation is to a change in the Treasury assumptions. For example, you could run the model using a rate that is plus or minus 1% from the Treasury rate. This can provide assurances around year end valuations and enable you to disclose sensitivity impacts.

30 June 2022

The following risk-free discount rates are applicable to be used in the Treasury models issued under TC 2009/06 for 30 June 2022 valuations:

• 1 year: 3.34%
• 2 year: 3.70%
• 3 year plus: 4.29%*

The Treasury Excel models also require a long-term salary inflation assumption of 3.01%**

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