The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) released its Sectoral Factor Model Inflation gauge for the fourth quarter of 2022 this Wednesday.

The gauge climbed further to 5.8% YoY in Q4 2022 vs. 5.6% seen in Q3.

In early Asia, New Zealand’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 1.4% QoQ in the fourth quarter, beating expectations of a 1.3% increase. Meanwhile, the annualized inflation steadied at 7.2% but bettered estimates of 7.1%.

FX Implications

The Kiwi dollar is unimpressed by the RBNZ inflation gauge, as NZD/USD is keeping its recovery mode intact toward 0.6500.

At the time of writing, the Kiwi is trading at 0.6489, down 0.20% on the day.

About the RBNZ Sectoral Factor Model Inflation

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has a set of models that produce core inflation estimates. The sectoral factor model estimates a measure of core inflation based on co-movements - the extent to which individual price series move together. It takes a sectoral approach, estimating core inflation based on two sets of prices: prices of tradable items, which are either imported or exposed to international competition, and prices of non-tradable items, which are those produced domestically and not facing competition from imports.