How the figures fit together

All the borrowing the government manages, how it matches the accounts, and the Reserve Bank's part.

All the borrowing New Zealand Debt Management (NZDM) manages

Bonds are most, but not all, of what NZDM manages. At 30 September 2026 it reported:[96][97][113][115]

30 September 2026	$ billion	Rate
Nominal bonds, 15 lines (face value)	209.0	3.21% average coupon
Inflation-indexed bonds, 4 lines (face value)	19.6	5.7% of adjusted principal: coupons plus indexation over the past year
Inflation indexation added to that principal	6.5
Treasury bills (face value)	5.1	Not published for bills on issue. Latest bill tenders (20 and 27 October 2026): 3.19% to 3.71%[110][112]
Euro-Commercial Paper (short-term borrowing in other currencies, in NZ dollars at month-end exchange rates)	5.2	Not published in these sources
Total	245.4

The bond amounts include $6.65 billion issued to the Reserve Bank ($5.25 billion nominal, $1.40 billion inflation-indexed). None of NZDM's sheets label a bond as a green bond, so this page does not show one (see what is left out). Treasury bills fell from $5.76 billion at 30 June 2026 and Euro-Commercial Paper from $6.79 billion.[114][116]

How this compares with the accounts

Treasury's accounts give core Crown borrowings of $256.8 billion at 30 June 2026.[9] On the same date NZDM's bonds, Treasury bills and Euro-Commercial Paper came to $230.7 billion at face value (Euro-Commercial Paper in NZ dollars at month-end exchange rates): bonds $218.1 billion, bills $5.76 billion and paper $6.79 billion.[117][114][116] The two measure different things, so they are not added together here. The accounts differ because:

core Crown borrowings include settlement deposits that banks hold with the Reserve Bank;[28] the Reserve Bank is part of the core Crown;[24]
they include derivatives in loss and other items, such as government retail stock, which Treasury counts in "other borrowings" without giving its amount;[61][67]
they measure bonds at amortised cost, not face value;[22]
bonds held inside the government are taken out when the accounts are combined. Treasury says that in 2025/26 more bonds were held by third parties and fewer by parts of the government, resulting in lower inter-entity eliminations.[71]

Treasury publishes borrowings by type only for the whole Crown (which also includes Crown entities and state-owned enterprises), not for the core Crown. Its Euro-Commercial Paper ($9.1 billion) and Treasury bills ($5.3 billion) at 30 June 2026 do not match NZDM's figures for that date, and the sources do not explain why.[65]

Borrowings by type, whole Crown, 30 June 2026

Whole Crown, 30 June 2026	$ billion
Government bonds	177.1
Kiwi Group customer deposits	32.2
Settlement deposits	24.4
Derivatives in loss	9.4
European commercial paper	9.1
Treasury bills	5.3
International Monetary Fund allocation	5.0
Public private partnership liability	3.7
Finance lease liabilities	1.1
Other borrowings	26.9
Total borrowings	294.0

Note 20 of the 2026 financial statements. "Government retail stock is included in other borrowings."[65][67]

Settlement cash and gross debt

Settlement deposits are money banks keep at the Reserve Bank. They count in core Crown borrowings but are taken out of gross debt. Treasury's own steps from one to the other at 30 June 2026:[68][7]

30 June 2026	$ billion
Core Crown borrowings	256.8
Plus core Crown unsettled purchases of securities	0.5
Less NZ Super Fund borrowings	−4.4
Less Reserve Bank settlement cash and Reserve Bank bills	−25.5
Gross debt	227.4

The Reserve Bank settlement cash and bills taken off were $25.5 billion, down from $33.0 billion a year earlier.[69] Across the whole Crown, settlement deposits fell from $32.1 billion to $24.4 billion.[66][65] Treasury says: Settlement deposits have also decreased by $7.6 billion mainly owing to the repayment of FLP advances and the downward movement of the official cash rate through the current year.[70] The average rate (see interest rates) divides by core Crown borrowings, which include settlement deposits, so changes in these deposits move that average.[28]

Bonds issued to the Reserve Bank

At 30 September 2026 NZDM showed $6.65 billion of government bonds (face value) issued to the Reserve Bank, up from $6.30 billion at 30 June 2026.[96][117] NZDM's figure includes bonds on repo to the market (bonds the Reserve Bank has sold under an agreement to buy them back). The Reserve Bank also holds bonds it bought in its Large Scale Asset Purchase programme. NZDM counts those among market bonds, and the sources here do not give their amount.[94][95] The Reserve Bank is part of the core Crown, so bonds it holds are owed by one part of the core Crown to another. When the accounts are combined, amounts owed between parts of the government, and the interest on them, are taken out.[24][71] Treasury's accounts describe the unwinding of the Reserve Bank's Large Scale Asset Purchase (LSAP) programme: these bonds are “refinanced” to the market as part of the core Crown borrowing programme. The impact was increased government bonds held by third parties and fewer held by parties within the Government Reporting Entity (resulting in lower inter-entity eliminations during the 2025/26 year).[71] In 2025/26 the government issued $33.7 billion of bonds and repaid $18.9 billion. The repayments included the maturity of marketable bonds in September 2025 and May 2026, and the repurchase of bonds to manage down of the LSAP programme.[73][72]