The Data: Coverage, Periodicity, and Timeliness

Coverage characteristics

Data are in millions of New Zealand dollars and are collected as at the last business day of the month.

These figures are aggregates of each data cell of the actual surveys returned by the M3 institutions. These are deposit-taking institutions, all but one a registered bank or subsidiary of a bank. The SSR obtains relatively comprehensive balance sheet data from respondents. A subset of data components is used to compile the monthly Money and Credit Aggregates (tables C1 to C4). Other SSR data contributes to tables C5, C6, C9 and C10.

Full documentation for series descriptions in the Excel Template is provided in the guidelines sent to institutions.

Balance sheet figures reported by the surveyed financial institutions conform to generally accepted accounting practice adopted by the institutions. In particular, values may be at book or ‘marked to market’ according to appropriate practice for the instruments involved.

Where possible the resident/non-resident distinction in these tables is based on the geographical location of respondents and counterpart transactions. To facilitate statistical reporting however, the New Zealand income tax rules on residency are accepted as an approximation, and are the predominant definition.

Periodicity

Monthly, as at the last business day.

Timeliness

On or before the last business day of the month after the end of the reference month.

Access by the public

Advance release calendar

The “Advance Release Calendar” is also updated and released each Friday on the website. This is a long-term plan of scheduled releases.

Integrity

Dissemination of terms and conditions under which official statistics are produced, including confidentiality of individual responses

Data are collected under Section 36 of The Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 1989 (The Act).

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand publishes only aggregated data. Individual institutional data is confidential.

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”.

Any major changes in methodology are posted on the website as a note.

A history of changes to the Money, Credit and Financial statistics tables is provided, and outlines breaks which affect series in these tables.

An article on the recent review of the monetary aggregates appears in the June 1999 Bulletin, pages 5-23. For more detail on the construction of the monetary aggregates see pages 134 and 135 of the June 1987 Bulletin. Further discussion can be found on pages 227 - 230 of the September 1987 Bulletin. A review of M3 sector statistics was completed in 93/94 - see pages 265-267 of the September Bulletin 1994. A historical M1 series from 1981 is available on the web site. For information on the use of monetary aggregates, see pages 278-282 of the December 1989 Bulletin and pages 330-340 of the December 1991 Bulletin.

Quality

Dissemination of documentation on methodology and sources used in preparing statistics

The list of M3 Institutions providing data is reviewed annually.

An Excel Template (1,458 KB)is completed and returned each month by the M3 Institutions. This template incorporates a “Help” screen that specifies completion directions and data definitions for survey respondents.

Details of changes to the way monetary and credit aggregates were compiled from 30 June 1998 are explained in Financial Statistics, June 1998 Vol. 1 No 2. The weekly money and credit aggregates were brought into line with the monthly series at this time.

Dissemination of monetary aggregates that support statistical cross-check and provide assurance of reasonableness

The C1 – C10 tables include the “Monetary aggregates”(C1), “Credit aggregates”(C2) and various breakdowns of these two tables, along with “Household claims”(C10). These tables are constructed using data supplied for the SSR.

Disclosure statements published by registered banks offer additional checks for reasonableness. Links to registered bank websites can be found in the Banking System section of this site.