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Supporting information:

Basic information: Reserve Bank of New Zealand liabilities & asset tables (F1 & F2)

The Data: Coverage, Periodicity, and Timeliness

Coverage characteristics

Data are published as end of month figures in millions of New Zealand dollars.

Data on liabilities denominated in foreign currency includes Current, Long-term and IMF: allocation of SDRs. Data on liabilities denominated in NZ dollars includes Reserve Bank bills, Government deposits, Settlement institution deposits, Other deposits, Currency in circulation, Other liabilities, Capital reserves and Total liabilities.

Data on assets denominated in foreign currency includes Current account advances, Marketable securities, IMF: holding of SDRs and Foreign assets. Data on assets denominated in NZ dollars includes Settlement institutions advances, Crown settlement account advances, Advances to Treasury, Government securities, Other investments in NZ, Fixed assets and inventories, Other assets and Total assets.

The series start from October 1993.

Periodicity

Monthly

Timeliness

Data is released two to three weeks after the reference month.

Access by the public

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

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

The information is disseminated by the Reserve Bank of New Zeland as a service to the public.

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 website under “Revisions to Tables”.

Any major changes in methodology will be posted here on this website.

Quality

Dissemination of documentation on methodology and sources used in preparing statistics

Series data are prepared in accordance with New Zealand generally accepted accounting practice. Specific accounting policies are disclosed in the Reserve Bank’s Annual Report.

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

The full Reserve Bank Annual Report (subject to audit).

Additional notes

During 1998/1999 the Reserve Bank’s long standing role as holder of International Monetary Fund Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) was transferred to the New Zealand Treasury. The transferred foreign currency assets and liabilities, which were of equal value, are now accounted for in the Crown balance sheet.

With the introduction of the Official Cash Rate (OCR), the Bank ceased issuing Reserve Bank bills on 5 February 1999. All Reserve Bank bills and the related Advances to Treasury were repaid by 9 April 1999. R B bills were re-introduced in November 2009 following a review of the RBNZ’s liquidity management activities.

Prior to August 2004 short sales of bonds were netted off against the bonds in marketable securities. From August 2004 short sales are reported as liabilities denominated in foreign currency.

With the introduction of the Bank’s liquidity management policy in 2006, some balance sheet, foreign currency asset and liquidity management data series disseminated monthly have begun to change.

As explained in the document “Reform of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s Liquidity Management Operations” a new approach to liquidity management policy was 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).

In January 2009 The Reserve Bank revised its historical data for assets and liabilities, to reclassify unsettled spot foreign exchanges. Previously the NZD leg was included in Local Currency Assets or Local Currency Liabilities, and is now netted in Foreign Currency Assets or Foreign Currency Liabilities

Last updated 20 July 2009