Power price spike put margin squeeze on NZ producers in Dec quarter, stats show

Power price spike put margin squeeze on NZ producers in Dec quarter, stats show
Paul McBeth
By Paul McBeth Feb. 20 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand producers felt the pinch in the final three months of 2018 as a spike in electricity prices drove up input costs at twice the pace of the price increases they could pass on to their customers.  Prices paid by producers, the input producers price index, rose 1.6 percent in the December quarter, driven by a 23 percent increase in the prices paid for electricity and gas, Statistics New Zealand figures show. Wholesale electricity prices spiked late last year as an outage at the Pohokura o...