Headline inflation in New Zealand remained steady at 2.2 per cent in 2024, with the cost of housing rents denying another fall.
The consumers price index (CPI) stayed put in the year to December 2024, marking the first time in eight releases dating back to 2022 it has not fallen.
A lift in rents of 4.2 per cent made up roughly a fifth of the overall inflation, while rates surged by 12.2 per cent.
While tobacco prices also jumped 7.6 per cent, overall inflation was offset by dropping petrol prices - which fell 9.2 per cent.
"Petrol makes up about four per cent of the CPI basket. Its price fall made a significant contribution to the slower increase in the annual inflation rate in December 2024," Stats NZ spokeswoman Nicola Growden said on Wednesday.
Inflation peaked in New Zealand in mid-2022 when it was measured at 7.3 per cent, taking more than two years to fall back inside the Reserve Bank's target band of one to three per cent.
The fall has been due to offshore price falls.
Tradeable prices are down by 1.1 per cent in the last year, while non-tradeable prices - or domestic inflation - were up 4.5 per cent.
Despite the fall in inflation being largely not of his doing, Prime Minister Chris Luxon continues to take credit for it.
"Our economic plan is working," he posted on social media.
The inflation plunge has led New Zealand's central bank to cut the official cash rate (OCR) from 5.5 per cent - where it sat from May 2023 to July 2024 - in recent months.
The OCR is at 4.25 per cent, with analysts united behind further cuts to come early this year.
New Zealand's economy is in the doldrums, with gross domestic product dropping by 2.1 per cent in the six months between April and September last year.
