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New Zealand’s total manufacturing sales volumes rose 1.4 percent during the first quarter of this year, boosted by meat and dairy volumes, which were up 2.2 percent q/q, despite a fall in livestock slaughtering in the quarter. 'Core' sales posted a more moderate increase of 0.6 percent q/q. Total stocks of finished goods were up 8.3 percent q/q.
Meat and dairy sales volumes were up 2.2 percent q/q, despite a fall in livestock slaughtering in the quarter. Export volumes fell in Q1 but sales volumes increased – with the volume of inventories up 3.7 percent y/y. In nominal terms, meat and dairy sales were down 4.7 percent q/q, with prices down for dairy (-7 percent) and meat and meat product (-1.6 percent) manufacturing.
Stripping out meat and dairy product manufacturing (which often throw the figures around), 'core' sales volumes rose 0.6 percent q/q with stocks of finished goods up 2.1 percent q/q. It is core manufacturing that is most relevant for forming views on quarterly GDP growth.
"Today’s core manufacturing result was perhaps a little softer than our expectations, but implications for our views on Q1 GDP growth are minimal," ANZ Research commented in its latest report.
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