RD_032: Capital Goods Price Index — March 2026 quarter (Stats NZ)

RD_032: Capital Goods Price Index — March 2026 quarter (Stats NZ)

Source

https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/capital-goods-price-index-march-2026-quarter/ — original source (opens in a new tab; the file is not redistributed)

Capital Goods Price Index — March 2026 quarter (Stats NZ) — NZ civil-construction cost-escalation deflator (RD_032)

The Stats NZ series that de-dates OT_113's June-2018 civil rates — confirmed, but this release only reaches back to Mar-2024

The official Capital Goods Price Index (CGPI) March 2026 quarter workbook. It fixes the civil construction cost-escalation series (CEPQ.S61103, base September 2022 = 1000) that RT_368 needs to de-date OT_113’s June-2018 (ex-escalation) civil unit rates before any enter the NI engine. Civil construction stood at 1101 in Mar-2026 — +3.1% year-on-year and +1.9% for the quarter (a marked acceleration from the ~0.1–0.7% quarterly steps that preceded it). The sub-series most used by NI: systems for water and sewerage (S611031B) +4.0% YoY and energy generation, transmission & distribution works (S611031E) +1.5% YoY. Caveat that keeps RT_368 open: this quarterly release only tabulates the last nine quarters (Mar-2024 → Mar-2026), so it does not itself contain the June-2018 level — the full 2018→2026 factor still requires the Infoshare back-series. data_quality: verified — every figure read verbatim from the workbook; YoY/QoQ internal cross-checks tie out.

Summary

The Capital Goods Price Index (CGPI) is Stats NZ’s quarterly measure of price change for the goods and services that make up fixed capital formation — i.e. what it costs to acquire and install capital assets (buildings, civil works, plant, vehicles). It is the appropriate deflator for a CapEx rate card, distinct from the CPI (household prices) and the PPI (industry input/output prices). This is the March 2026 quarter release workbook (published 19 May 2026), on base September 2022 quarter = 1000, containing three tables: index numbers (Table 1), quarter-on-quarter percentage change (Table 2), and same-quarter-previous-year percentage change (Table 3), each disaggregated to ~40 asset types.

For Neobiome Intelligence the load-bearing series is civil construction (S61103, weight 11.8% of the all-groups CGPI) and its five sub-components — transport ways (S611031A), systems for water and sewerage (S611031B), construction of telecommunications infrastructure (S611031C), other civil construction (S611031D), and energy generation, transmission & distribution works (S611031E). These are exactly the works OT_113’s June-2018 unit-rate card prices (three-waters trenching + buried pressure main, roading, energy BOS), so the civil construction series (or the water & sewerage / energy sub-series for line-specific work) is the correct escalation index for de-dating those rates. The limitation is coverage: this release only publishes Mar-2024 → Mar-2026, so the June-2018 base index — the denominator of the 2018→2026 factor RT_368 seeks — must still be pulled from the continuous Infoshare series (CEPQ.S61103).

Key claims

- claim: "Capital Goods Price Index (CGPI), civil construction (series ref CEPQ S61103; weight 11.8 per cent of the all-groups CGPI), base September 2022 quarter = 1000. Index numbers: Mar-2024 1055; Jun-2024 1057; Sep-2024 1059; Dec-2024 1064; Mar-2025 1068; Jun-2025 1075; Sep-2025 1078; Dec-2025 1081; Mar-2026 1101."
  source_location: "Table 1 (Index numbers), row 'Civil construction' S61103; base note 'Base: September 2022 quarter (=1000)'. Weight 11.8% from Table 2/Table 3 'Weight (percent)' column."
- claim: "CGPI civil construction (S61103) rose 1.9 per cent in the March 2026 quarter and 3.1 per cent from the same quarter of the previous year (Mar-2025). The 1.9% quarterly rise is a marked acceleration from the preceding quarters (QoQ: Mar-2024 +0.1, Jun-2024 +0.2, Sep-2024 +0.2, Dec-2024 +0.5, Mar-2025 +0.4, Jun-2025 +0.7, Sep-2025 +0.3, Dec-2025 +0.3, Mar-2026 +1.9). Annual rate over the same span ranged 0.9%–3.1%."
  source_location: "Table 2 (Percentage change from previous quarter), row 'Civil construction' S61103 (Mar-2026 = 1.9). Table 3 (Percentage change from same quarter of previous year), row 'Civil construction' S61103 (Mar-2026 = 3.1; series 2.1/1.7/1.5/0.9/1.2/1.7/1.8/1.6/3.1)."
- claim: "Civil construction sub-series, index numbers (base Sep-2022=1000) at Mar-2026 with annual (YoY) and quarterly (QoQ) change: Transport ways (S611031A, weight 5.7%) = 1094, +2.8% YoY, +2.7% QoQ; Systems for water and sewerage (S611031B, weight 3.1%) = 1100, +4.0% YoY, +1.0% QoQ; Energy generation, transmission, and distribution works (S611031E, weight 1.5%) = 1084, +1.5% YoY, +0.7% QoQ; Construction of telecommunications infrastructure (S611031C, weight 0.7%) = 1185, +5.2% YoY, +2.7% QoQ; Other civil construction (S611031D, weight 0.8%) = 1115, +2.1% YoY, +0.9% QoQ."
  source_location: "Table 1 (index numbers, Mar-2026 column) + Table 2 (QoQ, Mar-2026) + Table 3 (YoY, Mar-2026), civil-construction sub-rows S611031A/B/C/D/E; weights from the 'Weight (percent)' column."
- claim: "The all-groups CGPI (S611, weight 100%) was 1094 at Mar-2026, +0.2% QoQ and +1.2% YoY. For building context: residential buildings (S61101) = 1111, +0.5% QoQ, +1.4% YoY; non-residential buildings (S61102) = 1123. (Civil construction's +1.9% QoQ / +3.1% YoY at Mar-2026 ran ahead of the all-groups average.)"
  source_location: "Table 1 rows 'All groups' S611 (1094), 'Residential buildings' S61101 (1111), 'Non-residential buildings' S61102 (1123); Table 2 rows S611 (0.2) and S61101 (0.5); Table 3 rows S611 (1.2) and S61101 (1.4)."
- claim: "Release metadata: this is the Capital goods price indexes March 2026 quarter release, published by Stats NZ on 19 May 2026, base September 2022 quarter = 1000. The workbook tabulates only the last nine quarters (Mar-2024 through Mar-2026); the full time series (including quarters before Mar-2024) is available on Stats NZ Infoshare under Subject 'Economic indicators' > Group 'Capital Goods Price index – CEP'. The next release (Business price indexes: June 2026 quarter) is scheduled for 19 August 2026."
  source_location: "Contents sheet ('Capital goods price indexes: March 2026 quarter'; 'Published by Stats NZ / 19 May 2026'; Infoshare navigation 'Economic indicators' / 'Capital Goods Price index – CEP'; 'Next release ... 19 August 2026'). Table 1 header 'Base: September 2022 quarter (=1000)' and quarter columns Mar-2024..Mar-2026."

Neobiome Intelligence relevance

Purpose (RT_368): OT_113’s civil unit rates are a June-2018 base, explicitly ex-escalation card (“These estimates are exclusive of escalation and GST” on every sheet). Before any of those rates (bulk earthworks 50/m³, rock EO 130/m³, PE100 pressure main 200–360/m, RCRRJ stormwater 950–2,500/m) enters the NI engine — chiefly the D26 micro-hydro penstock distance-cost term and the D03 three-waters civil cells — they must be brought forward to the model base year with a NZ construction-cost escalator. The CGPI civil construction series (CEPQ.S61103) is the correct, authoritative deflator for exactly this class of works.

What this source settles:

• Which series to use — civil construction S61103 for whole-of-civil escalation, or the line-specific sub-series (S611031B systems for water and sewerage for three-waters; S611031E energy works for D01 energy BOS; S611031A transport ways for trenching/roading-context rates).
• The base and recent levels — base Sep-2022 = 1000; civil construction reached 1101 at Mar-2026 (+3.1% YoY, +1.9% QoQ). Three-waters (water & sewerage) has run hotter at +4.0% YoY.

What it does NOT settle (RT_368 stays open): the workbook only reaches back to Mar-2024, so the June-2018 civil construction index — the denominator of the 2018→2026 factor — is not in this file. Computing the multiplier requires pulling CEPQ.S61103 (Jun-2018) from Stats NZ Infoshare (the continuous series; the CGPI was rebased to Sep-2022=1000, so the Jun-2018 value sits on the linked back-series). Until then only a partial, in-window escalation is derivable from this release — e.g. civil construction Mar-2024 → Mar-2026 = 1101 / 1055 = +4.4% over two years RD_032 — which is illustrative of the recent pace but is not the 2018→2026 factor and must not be substituted for it in the engine.

Corroboration: OT_130 independently cites the Stats NZ CGPI residential series at ~+1% over the last year; this release puts residential buildings (S61101) at +1.4% YoY (Mar-2026), consistent in magnitude. The civil construction series (+3.1% YoY) is running ahead of both residential and the all-groups average (+1.2% YoY).

Research targets

Documents to retrieve

• None new. The residual for RT_368 is a data pull, not a new document: the Jun-2018 value of CEPQ.S61103 (civil construction) from Stats NZ Infoshare — folded into the existing RT_368, not a new RT.

Research gaps

• RT_368 — ADVANCED, kept OPEN (not resolved). This source confirms the exact escalation series (CGPI civil construction S61103 + sub-series) and supplies the base (Sep-2022=1000) and Mar-2024→Mar-2026 levels, but not the Jun-2018 datum. Residual to close RT_368: retrieve CEPQ.S61103 at Jun-2018 from Infoshare and compute the 2018→2026 (model-base-quarter) multiplier to de-date OT_113. No new RT created (per minimise-new-RTs; the residual is the same target).

Notes

• Prefix rd_ (reference dataset): a Stats NZ statistical index workbook is a reference dataset (mirrors the MBIE/EECA/NIWA/Demographia rd_ convention), stored flat in source-files/03_data/.
• Topics rationale: water_supply_treatment (the water & sewerage civil sub-index is a directly-used component and mirrors sibling OT_113’s tagging), community_finance (this is a capital-cost/price benchmark — the nearest cost/finance retrieval bucket; the vocabulary has no generic “cost/economics” topic), nz_specific (national Stats NZ series). The energy-works sub-series (feeds D01) has no clean topic tag — captured via feeds: instead.
• Feeds mirror OT_113 (d01_renewable_energy_storage, d03_water_waste_circular, micro_hydro) because the CGPI civil construction series is the escalation deflator for the same civil-cost cells OT_113 supplies; the bullets record the series + base + Mar-2026 level and flag that the multiplier awaits the Infoshare Jun-2018 datum.
• CGPI vs CPI/PPI: CGPI measures capital-formation output prices (cost to buy/install a capital asset) — the right deflator for a CapEx rate card. Do not substitute the headline CPI (consumer prices) for construction escalation.
• Coverage limit is the single most important caveat: nine quarters only (Mar-2024–Mar-2026). Anyone applying this to OT_113 must go to Infoshare for the 2018 base.

Connections

Links to

Sources (2): OT_113 · OT_130

Referenced by

EDT domains (2): D01: Renewable Energy & Storage Systems · D03: Water, Waste & Circular Systems

Sources (1): OT_113

Technologies (1): Micro-hydro (run-of-river, community-scale)