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Annual balance sheets provide estimates of assets, liabilities, and net worth held by New Zealand institutional sectors at a point in time. These sectors include businesses, households, and government.

This release also records the flows between the annual stock balances of non-financial assets, financial assets, and financial liabilities, known as the accumulation accounts.

Estimates updated

Annual balance sheets: 2023 (provisional) provides updated estimates, up to and including the March 2023 year.

Estimates beyond March 2023 are included in the quarterly ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ accounts (income, savings, assets, and liabilities) release, which will be published in January 2025. The January release will integrate the new annual estimates up to March 2023 as benchmarks and provide a consistent time series through to the September 2024 quarter. The release will also include provisional annual estimates for the March 2024 year.

Key facts

In the year ended March 2023:

• New Zealand’s net worth decreased 0.4 percent as liabilities rose at a higher rate than assets
• household net worth decreased 2.8 percent, following an increase of 15.6 percent in the March 2022 year
• registered bank lending increased 3.6 percent, following an increase of 5.9 percent in the March 2022 year.

New Zealand’s net worth decreases

At 31 March 2023, New Zealand’s net worth was $2.8 trillion, a decrease of $13 billion (0.4 percent) from the previous year.

Since the series began in March 2007, the only other instance of a net worth decrease was in the year ended March 2009, with a decrease of $17 billion.

The household and government sectors are the primary contributors to New Zealand’s total net worth. In the March 2023 year, households accounted for the largest share at 85.1 percent, while the combined contribution of the central and local government sectors was 14.5 percent.

Falling property prices result in a decrease in household net worth

In the year ended March 2023, the net worth of New Zealand households fell to $2.4 trillion, a $70 billion (2.8 percent) decrease from the previous year.

In contrast, the net worth of the combined central and local government sectors increased $37 billion over the same period.

Declining residential property valuations has had a significant impact on household net worth. Non-financial assets of the household sector (land and buildings identified as properties that owners live in), decreased $109 billion (8.6 percent) from the previous year.

The decrease in non-financial assets was offset by an increase of $51 billion in financial assets. This was mainly due to an increase in equity and investment fund shares of $39 billion; currency and deposits also increased, up $11 billion from the previous year.

Household financial liabilities (that include mortgage, consumer borrowing, and student loans), increased $11 billion (3.9 percent), compared with growth of 8.2 percent in the March 2022 year.

Bank lending growth slows

In the year ended March 2023 the banking sector (registered banks) recorded an increase in total financial assets of $22 billion (3.3 percent), following an increase of $36 billion in the March 2022 year.

Of the total increase in financial assets in the March 2023 year, loans increased $19 billion (3.6 percent), following a rise of $29 billion (5.9 percent) in the March 2022 year.

Effects of revisions on household net worth

Annual balance sheets: 2023 (provisional) is the first time comprehensive estimates for the March 2023 year have been published. Provisional estimates for the March 2023 year were previously available through the quarterly ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ accounts (income, saving, assets, and liabilities) release.

Following the incorporation of higher-quality annual data sources, these new benchmarks represent a more accurate estimate of annual balance sheets.

The inclusion of higher-quality data has led to household net worth being revised up $93 billion from provisional values available through the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ accounts (income, saving, assets, and liabilities) release, most recently ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ accounts (income, saving, assets, and liabilities): June 2024 quarter, published in October 2024.

Almost the entire revision in household net worth is attributed to a similar revision of $93 billion in equity and investment fund shares.

These updated values will be used as benchmarks in the next quarterly release, so the quarterly estimates will revise at that time. The next quarterly release, for the September 2024 quarter, is due on 16 January 2025.

More data

Use Infoshare to access time-series data on annual balance sheets.

Subject category: Economic indicators
Group: ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Accounts – SNA 2008

From the 2022 release, we added three new series:

• Accumulation account – capital account – flows (Annual-Mar)
• Accumulation account – capital account – other (Annual-Mar)
• Accumulation accounts (Annual-Mar).

Definitions and metadata

Annual balance sheets: 2007-2023 – DataInfo+ provides information about data sources and methods used to produce these statistics.

Annual balance sheets: 2023 metadata package – DataInfo+ gives information on updates to previously published estimates of annual balance sheet and accumulation accounts data due to updated data sources and ongoing improvements to sources and methods.

Technical enquiries

Lindsay Beck
04 931 4600
[email protected]

ISSN 2537-7930

Next release

Annual balance sheets: 2024 (provisional) will be released in November 2025.