New standards partly responsible for pushing up rents and inflation, says Stats NZ. Rising rents, international and domestic airfares, and petrol price increases have helped push up annual inflation to 1.9 per cent. Statistics NZ said a 0.8 per cent rise in rents in the quarter pushed the annual average increase up to 3.1 per cent, which was the highest annual increase since 2008. READ MORE* Soaring domestic airfares and higher rents help hold up inflation* Rising petrol prices and higher rents push New Zealand inflation* Reserve Bank surprise: OCR on holdThe rise in rents reflected high demand for rental properties in parts of the country, Statistics prices manager Paul Pascoe said. ANZ had correctly picked a 0.5 per cent quarterly rise, taking the annual figure to 1.9 per cent, but ASB, BNZ, and Westpac all picked a 1.8 per cent annual rise.

Source: Stuff January 23, 2020 21:45 UTC