![\"International](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/international-airfares-were-the-biggest-contributor-climbing-V77U7K44CVAC3H4DHKPH4C5FPQ.jpg\")
<\/p>\nInflation has increased by 3.1% according to official figures released by Stats NZ today – the highest annual rate since the June 2024 quarter, when it was 3.3%. <\/p>\n
The increase in the 12 months to the December quarter followed a 3.0% rise in the 12 months to the September 2025 quarter. <\/p>\n
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand\u2019s target band for the annual inflation rate is 1 to 3%. <\/p>\n
“While the annual inflation rate has slowed considerably since its most recent peak of 7.3% in the June 2022 quarter, it has increased each quarter since the December 2024 quarter, when it was 2.2%,” Stats NZ prices and deflators spokesperson Nicola Growden said. <\/p>\n
The largest contribution to annual inflation was electricity, which was up 12.2%. According to Stats NZ, electricity contributed to 10.3% of the 3.1% annual increase. <\/p>\n
“Annual electricity increases remain at their highest since the late 1980s, when there were several major reforms in the electricity market,” Growden said.<\/p>\n
Local authority rates and payments were up 8.8% in the December 2025 quarter, contributing 8.7% to the 3.1% increase, while rent was up 1.9%, contributing 6.9%. <\/p>\n
Food and travel costs also added pressure, with meat and poultry up 8.2%, milk. cheese and eggs rising 9.8%, and overseas accommodation increasing by 9.1%. <\/p>\n
Telecommunications services were up 7.0% over the year. <\/p>\n
Some prices fell, including pharmaceutical products, audio-visual equipment and games, toys, and hobbies. <\/p>\n
More than 80% of items in the CPI basket increased in price over the past year, the highest proportion in 18 months. <\/p>\n
“Over half of the CPI basket increased in price by 3.0% or less,” Growden said. <\/p>\n
Quarterly inflation at 0.6%<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
International airfares were the biggest contributor, climbing 7.2% and accounting for one fifth of the quarterly increase. (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n
Inflation rose 0.6% in the December 2025 quarter when compared to the September 2025 quarter. <\/p>\n
International airfares were the biggest contributor, climbing 7.2% and accounting for one fifth of the quarterly increase. <\/p>\n
“Prices for international air transport typically increase during the New Zealand summer holidays as demand for overseas travel picks up,” Growden said.<\/p>\n
Airfares to Asia, Australia and Africa drove the increase in the December 2025 quarter. <\/p>\n
Petrol prices also rose 2.5% over the quarter, with the average price of 91 octane fuel increasing from $2.54 per litre in the September 2025 quarter to $2.61 per litre in the December 2025 quarter. <\/p>\n
Lower vegetable prices, down 16.5%, helped offset some of the quarterly rise, with cheaper tomatoes, cucumber, capsicum, lettuce and broccoli contributing to the fall. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inflation has increased by 3.1% according to official figures released by Stats NZ today – the highest annual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-247172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}