Supporting information:
Historical data (Excel spreadsheet)Basic information: New Zealand’s official overseas reserves table (E1)
The Data: Coverage, Periodicity, and Timeliness |
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Coverage characteristics |
Data are disseminated in millions of New Zealand dollars. The series start from January 1993.
Data includes Reserve Bank/Treasury foreign currency reserves: Securities, Cash and deposits, Total and Total foreign currency reserves, Other reserve assets, Gold, reserve position at IMF, Special Drawing Rights, Total official reserves and Other foreign currency assets. Data is updated on the RBNZ website and is published twice yearly in the RBNZ Financial Statistics. |
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Periodicity |
Monthly |
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Timeliness |
Data is released on the last week of the month after the end of the reference month. |
Access by the public |
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Advance release calendar |
The “Advance Release Calendar” is updated and released each Friday on the website. This is a long-term plan of scheduled releases. |
Integrity |
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Dissemination of terms and conditions under which official statistics are produced, including confidentiality of individual responses |
New Zealand's reporting of international reserves has been modified for March 2000 data onwards to conform to the standards required by the IMF for the purpose of subscription to the Special Data Dissemination Standards (SDDS). |
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Provision of information about revisions and advance notice of major changes in methodology |
Provisional data are italicised. Data are deemed provisional when a series is under review. New data, or revised data, are in bold font. Revisions are generally published when the table is next due to be updated and released. Should revisions need to be made more promptly, a note is posted on the Internet website under “Revisions to Tables”. The Bank has amended the definitions and presentation of international reserves data published in table E1 to conform to the SDDS standards and mapped the E1 presentation to the SDDS template. Any major changes in methodology will be posted below in “Additional notes”. |
Quality |
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Dissemination of documentation on methodology and sources used in preparing statistics |
Data is provided from the accounting systems of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and NZDMO and prepared in accordance with the IMF data template on International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity. |
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Dissemination of ... that support statistical cross-check and provide assurance of reasonableness |
This table is a summary of the IMF Template. |
Additional notes
New Zealand's reporting of international reserves has been modified for March 2000 data onwards, to conform to the standards required by the IMF for the purpose of subscription to the Special Data Dissemination Standards (SDDS). The format for presentation of this data for SDDS purposes is prescribed by the IMF in a data template on international reserves and foreign currency liquidity. This template conveys more comprehensive information on international reserves than previously provided for New Zealand's international reserves. It will be updated each month and disseminated on the Bank's website before the end of the following month.
The Bank has amended the definitions and presentation of international reserves data published in table E1 to conform to the SDDS standards and mapped the E1 presentation to the SDDS template.
Changes in Liquidity Management
Some Reserve Bank balance sheet, foreign currency asset and liquidity management data series disseminated monthly have recently begun to reflect changes made this year to the Bank's liquidity management policy.
As explained in the document "Reform of
the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's Liquidity Management Operations" a new
approach to liquidity management policy is now being phased in by the Bank.
Increasing liquidity needs of the banking system at a time when availability of
government securities was declining, have prompted the Bank to move away from a
system relying on bank holdings of government debt as the basis for generating
the cash needed to facilitate interbank settlement of payments.
In
February 2006 the Bank increased the level of settlement cash in the system to
$2 billion to meet immediate needs. From July 2006 the level of settlement cash
will be increased further over time to a likely range of $5 - $7 billion. This
new liquidity management policy manifests in the Bank's balance sheet and
foreign currency reserves, with larger domestic liabilities matched by larger
foreign exchange assets. At present the Bank is holding foreign currency assets
as the counterpart to the increased settlement cash made available to the
domestic banks The foreign exchange risk on the foreign currency assets is
hedged, using off-balance sheet transactions (foreign exchange swaps).
28 July 2006
