Source: Statistics New Zealand
Consumers price index: March 2025 quarter missing vehicle relicensing fee increase – We have identified that vehicle relicensing fee increases were not captured in the consumers price index (CPI) March 2025 quarter, released on 17 April 2025.
The CPI March 2025 headline figure will not be updated. CPI data published on 17 April remains the official measure of inflation. We will capture the impact of the vehicle relicensing fee increase and incorporate this in the CPI June 2025 quarter release.
Background
On 1 January 2025, vehicle relicensing fees increased by $25. While these prices were collected by Stats NZ, the increases were not included in our CPI calculations.
We have investigated the impact of this. Had the increase been captured, the CPI all groups inflation would have increased by an additional 0.1 percentage points, as shown in the table below.
| Official CPI measure March 2025 quarter | CPI if the vehicle relicensing fee increase were included | |
| CPI all groups – annual percentage change | 2.5 percent | 2.6 percent |
| CPI all groups – quarterly percentage change | 0.9 percent | 1.0 percent |
Next steps
We will capture the impact of the vehicle relicensing fee increase and incorporate this in the CPI June 2025 quarter release. This is our standard approach for data updates to the CPI. We have confirmed with key customers that this is their preferred approach. CPI is widely used for contract indexation which is why it is not changed after publication.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
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