Who's feeling it?

How inflation hits New Zealanders differently

Headline CPI

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What the media reports ·

The headline is a national average.

But how much more are you paying?

Select your group below ↓

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Compare groups

Demographic

Housing tenure

Group average Renter Outright owner Mortgaged owner

Inflation over time

Inflation by category

Source: Stats NZ Household Living-costs Price Indexes, December 2025 quarter. Expenditure weights from the 2024 HLPI review. Annual change = percentage change from same quarter of previous year.

What's the difference between CPI and HLPI?

CPI vs HLPI

The CPI is what the news reports — a national average, weighted to the average household's spending pattern.

The HLPI uses the same prices but reweights them to each group's actual spending. If beneficiaries spend more of their budget on food, their HLPI rises faster when food prices spike.

Stats NZ: how housing costs are measured in CPI vs HLPI ↗

Mortgage interest

The CPI excludes mortgage interest payments. The HLPI includes them as a living cost. When the Reserve Bank raised the OCR sharply in 2022–23, HLPI rates for mortgaged households spiked well above the CPI.

Annual vs cumulative

Annual % change shows price growth versus the same quarter one year earlier — the number you hear in the news.

Cumulative change shows total price growth since the start of the selected period: how much more expensive is everything now?

Interest payments category

The Interest payments row appears in the HLPI category breakdown but not in the CPI — it is an HLPI-only category. The CPI bar is intentionally absent for this row.

Tenure adjustment

The HLPI basket weights each housing sub-component by the proportion of the group that pays it. Renters pay rent but not rates or maintenance; owners pay the reverse. The tenure adjustment in the Personalise tab rescales these weights to reflect what a specific tenure type actually pays.