Total liquidations, Jan 2025
Although January is traditionally the month of every year with the fewest insolvencies, 2025 opened with 94 liquidations compared to 63 in 2024 and 56 in 2023, and the highest figure since 2018 which was 100.?
As the holiday period has now come to a?close, reality has struck?quickly for many business owners facing insolvency. This is seen in the significant increase in liquidations over the last three months, bucking the trend from prior years where December and January are usually less active.?
From 2001 to 2018 annual liquidation figures remained above 2000 appointments per year. In 2019 it slipped to under 2000 for the first time in recent history. The lowest figure since 2001 was recorder during the height of the pandemic in 2021 when only 1448 were recorded. Since then annual figures started rising steadily and in 2024 it reached 2504, a total which was last seen in 2015.?
Although these figures are higher than what was experienced in the past nine years, it is still more than a thousand cases per year lower than what was experienced in 2008 and 2009.?
Economic overview: Jan 2025
Kiwis were quick to tighten their financial belts in January with just about all categories of electronic card spending taking a nose dive following the short spurt in December.?
Spending in the retail industries decreased 1.6 percent ($103 million) while?spending in core retail industries decreased 1.5 percent ($86 million).?
Retails sub categories were all down apart from fuel to get to and rom work and those pesky services and repairs that were overlooked in December.?
A little financial prudence will go a long way for?consumers as?food prices across New Zealand rose 1.9 percent in January 2025, following a 0.1 percent increase in December 2024.?
Valentine's Day might have been a little bitter sweet with the biggest food increases being for chocolate and milk.?The average price of a 250g block of chocolate was $5.72 in January 2025 compared with $4.90 in January 2024.
Other major contributors include?fruit and vegetables, up 2.8 percent, and alcoholic beverages and tobacco prices up 2.4 percent, largely due to the?new tobacco excise tax that took effect on January 1, 2025.
Information supplied by StatsNZ