Updated TWI weights

21 December 1999

The updated weights for the RBNZ Trade-Weighted Index, which apply from 21 December 1999, are as follows:

These weights have been calculated on the basis of calendar year 1998 data.
Merchandise trade data is sourced from Statistics New Zealand.
Nominal GDP is sourced from International Financial Statistics, published by the International Monetary Fund. For the Euro Area, we have used the Eurostat estimate of nominal GDP across the entire Euro Area (available in IFS).
GDP shares are calculated using GDP measured in local currency units, converted into US dollars (using period average exchange rates from IFS).

On the basis of the exchange rates prevailing at 11 am on 20 December 1999, the TWI (with the old weights) had a value of 54.21. To set the TWI (with the new weights) at 11am on 20 December equal to this level, the new scaling factor is 56.4252.

The TWI formula and other information is available from our information release of 21 December 1998. Please contact David Hargreaves on (04) 471-3666 if there are any inquiries relating to this message.