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 statistics that support statistical cross-checks 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 to E1 and IMF Template (SDDS)
After consultation with the IMF, the E1 series and IMF Template (SDDS) have been revised to reflect the following changes:
- A reclassification of investments previously included in 'Deposits' to 'Securities' and 'Other reserve assets'. This change has no effect on Total foreign currency reserves.
- Securities lent under securities lending agent arrangements have been reclassified from 'Other reserve assets' to 'Securities'. This change has no effect on Total foreign currency reserves.
- The inclusion of the net market value of liquidity management swaps in 'Other reserve assets'. The inclusion of this amount will change the Total foreign currency reserves figure.
Revisions have been made from September 2005 to April 2007. The changes have no material effect prior to September 2005.
18 June 2007
Revisions were made to table E1 and the IMF SDDS Template due to cash collateral received (which are repayable to the counterparty when market conditions change or the underlying transactions mature and are settled) being reclassified as an illiquid asset, and consequently removed from Official Reserve Assets.
These revisions affect the months from October 2008 to July 2009.
30 December 2009
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" (PDF 282
KB) 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
