Corrections have been made to some import volume index series published in Overseas Trade Indexes (Volumes): December 2008 quarter (provisional) released on 11 March 2009. An error was made in the calculation of the petroleum and petroleum products volume index for the September 2008 and December 2008 quarters. This index also feeds into the following indexes, which are also incorrect:
- Primary fuels and lubricants
- Total intermediate goods
- Total imports.
The 11 March media release reported that “Seasonally adjusted import volumes fell 4.8 percent in the December 2008 quarter, following a fall of 5.3 percent in the September 2008 quarter”. This now reads “Seasonally adjusted import volumes fell 5.8 percent in the December 2008 quarter, following a fall of 3.9 percent in the September 2008 quarter”.
This error has no impact on either the Overseas Trade price indexes or Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Corrections have been made to the September and December 2008 quarters for these series. Actual, and seasonally adjusted series with associated percentage changes have been corrected.
The corrected tables have been republished to the website, and an abbreviated set of tables highlighting the corrected data – and how these differ from the previously released data – is available in this Hot Off The Press.
Some minor changes have occurred to a number of additional series for the December 2008 quarter. This is due to the need to use a later version of overseas trade value data while making the above corrections.
Infoshare will be updated with the corrected numbers at 11.00am, 29 April 2009.
Statistics New Zealand regrets any inconvenience caused by these errors.
For enquiries please contact:
Kathy Connolly
Christchurch 03 964 8700
Email: overseastrade@stats.govt.nz