Source: MIL-OSI Submissions
Economic impact of COVID-19 at a glance – Media release
24 April 2020
A new webpage gathers key high-frequency and near real-time economic indicators to help track the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, Stats NZ said today.
COVID-19 is affecting New Zealand’s economy and there have traditionally been relatively few real-time indicators to measure its impact.
“This has changed with our new COVID-19 data portal, which shows graphs from various sources, so decision-makers, media, and the public can see at a glance what’s happening to different components of the economy in near real-time,” economic and environmental insights general manager Richard Evans said.
“This collaborative approach is unusual because we are drawing on a range of sources to provide a broader picture, for example, by including data from other government agencies and the private sector.”
The webpage features more than 40 key economic indicators across several measures, from trade data and consumer spending, to measures of business and consumer confidence. The indicators also include broadband and electricity use, border crossings, traffic counts, milk production, and commodity prices.
“The interactive page is a simple-to-use store of information in one handy spot,” Mr Evans said.
The graphs were compiled to help inform government agencies as the COVID-19 outbreak evolved around the world. Stats NZ is now making this data available to the public.
“The webpage may be expanded in future, with additional economic, social, and health indicators,” Mr Evans said.
“We may consider hosting some further analysis of the data in future, but for now the aim is to share the data as widely as possible.”
About the data
The data is interactive and users can capture graph images and download selected data from a CSV file.
The functionality, format and range of indicators will be developed in further iterations.
Externally-sourced data has not been verified by Stats NZ.
External sources of data are clearly identified, with an acknowledgement of the original source on each graph.
The data is from well-established and reliable sources, for example sentiment surveys by large New Zealand banks. However, Stats NZ has not attempted to review the methodology of such surveys.
Decision-makers using the data portal should refer to the original indicator source to understand how the data was collected and issues such as sample error.
Data from external sources are not official statistics.
Updating the data
The data will be updated as frequently as possible, in some cases on a daily or weekly basis. Other time series may have a longer time lag.
Feedback
Email communications@stats.govt.nz to let us know what you think of the COVID-19 data portal and how it could be improved.
Other Stats NZ data sources
COVID-19 provides statistics and commentary about the effects of COVID-19 in New Zealand.
Effects of COVID-19 on trade compares New Zealand’s daily goods trade with the world with those from previous years to show the potential impacts of COVID-19.
Provisional international travel statistics provides up-to-date provisional arrivals and departure data based on border-crossings into and out of New Zealand.
Understanding Aotearoa and our communities during COVID-19 supplies critical datasets such as population density and spend density.
