The consumer price index (CPI), which measures the rate of price change of household goods and services, increased 0.4% in the year to the September quarter, which followed a 0.4% increase in the year to June 2015 quarter, SNZ prices senior manager Chris Pike said yesterday when releasing the data.
Housing and household utility prices were up 2.7% in the year, with higher prices for newly built houses excluding land; up 5.5%, housing rentals, up 2.3%, and local authority rates up 5.9%.
''The annual increase was influenced by housing-related prices, particularly in Auckland," Mr Pike said.
The CPI for the quarter to September rose 0.3%, due to higher housing-related prices and seasonally higher vegetable and package holiday prices, but partly countered by lower vehicle relicensing fees.
ASB senior economist Jane Turner said the overall quarterly outcome was in line with the Reserve Bank's forecast.
''We now expect the Reserve Bank to leave the OCR on hold in October,'' she said yesterday.
Ms Turner said earlier this week Reserve bank governor Graeme Wheeler had indicated more concern in the housing market and preference to leave himself some headroom to cut the OCR, if the global economy slowed significantly.
''We now expect the Reserve Bank to wait until December before further cutting the OCR,'' she said.
Westpac chief economist Dominick Stephens said the CPI inflation was slightly stronger than the bank, and the market, anticipated in the September quarter.
He said part of the surprise, relative to Westpac's forecast, was probably represented by timing issues.
''SNZ's measure of petrol prices didn't fall as far as we anticipated, and the measure of domestic airfares rose instead of falling. We suspect that these issues will reverse in the December figures,'' he said.
Westpac's long-held view has been that low inflation will force the Reserve Bank to reduce the OCR below 2.5% in 2016, Mr Stephens said.
