Operating costs for transport companies were broadly lower in the final quarter of 2024, continuing a trend of moderating cost pressures throughout last year. Read

Diesel prices drifted downwards throughout much of 2024, by September reaching their lowest level since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022. But the relief for transport operators has been short-lived, with a renewed lift of almost 30c/L since early October. Read

Cost pressures for the road transport industry were mixed in the September quarter. Interest costs eased 2.1% to be down 4.5% from a year ago, representing the first annual decline since 2021, as the Reserve Bank cut the official cash rate for the first time since 2020. The OCR was lowered by anothe... Read

Cost pressures for the road transport industry mostly continued to weaken in the June quarter. The most upward pressure was evident for repairs and maintenance costs, which rose 1.6% from the previous quarter to be up 7.3% from a year ago. The persistence of these cost pressures is reflective of lin... Read

Cost pressures continued to ease for the transport sector in the March 2024 quarter. Diesel prices were 3.5% lower than in the December 2023 quarter, while finance costs edged lower for the second consecutive quarter. Labour costs recorded their smallest quarterly increase in more than three years, ... Read

Electric vehicle (EV) uptake in New Zealand has been accelerating over the last few years. Uptake was helped along with financial incentives including the Clean Car Discount scheme and the exemption of EVs from paying road user charges (RUC). With the discount scheme gone and EV owners about to start paying RUC, the trajectory is likely to change. Read

Global diesel prices have surged significantly over the last few months. Driven largely by supply constraints, our Chart of the Month shows how this surge has led to a significant import cost premium over petrol. Elevated diesel prices will have ripple effects throughout both the global and local economies, and risk inflation remaining higher for longer. Read

A constrained global supply of diesel has led to a substantial increase in prices over the last few months, both for importers, and at the pump. Higher diesel costs threaten to intensify inflationary pressures, with geopolitical concerns adding further upside risk. In this article, we outline the issues facing the current diesel market, and the outlook over the remainder of 2023 and into 2024. Read

Although the international tourism rebound for New Zealand has been strong, there has been little assessment of how domestic flight activity has been tracking. Despite some challenges, domestic air travel remains stronger than international travel, but is being squeezed by higher inflation, rapidly ... Read

The full fuel excise duty returned on 1 July 2023, which provisionally added 28.5c/L to the domestic price of regular petrol. However, the price of regular petrol was still 53c/L lower than this time last year, as the substantial decline in fuel prices since July 2022 means prices are sharply down even though the fuel tax is no longer discounted. Read