The New Zealand Activity Index (NZAC) was launched today to provide a more granular and timelier signal of movements in the New Zealand economy.
The new index is the result of collaboration between the Treasury, Statistics New Zealand and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to provide further timely insight for government, policy makers, economists and the general public into the impacts of COVID-19 on New Zealand’s economy and how its recovery is tracking.
The NZAC summarises eight monthly indicators of economic activity, covering consumer spending, unemployment, job vacancies, traffic volumes, electricity generation, economic outlook and manufacturing expectations. As a weighted average of these underlying indicators, it provides a more comprehensive measure than each individual indicator by itself.
It is not an interim estimate of GDP.
The new NZAC Index will be published each month, within the Weekly Economic Update that falls approximately mid-month, on the Economic Commentary page here on the Treasury website.
You can view the visualised timeseries and component data on the Statistics NZ COVID-19 data portal.
For further information, read our Media Release: New index shows activity down in April and May