WELLINGTON, April 23 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand's business research and development (R&D) spending was 4.1 billion NZ dollars (about 2.41 billion U.S. dollars) in 2025, marking a modest 0.4-percent increase from the previous year, Stats NZ reported Thursday.
Despite higher nominal spending, the volume of R&D activity decreased slightly between the March 2024 and March 2025 quarters, as inflation outpaced spending growth, with labor costs up 2.5 percent and input prices up 5.3 percent, the statistics department noted.
The number of businesses undertaking R&D fell 0.8 percent to 2,265, while total R&D employment dropped 5.1 percent to 19,000 full-time equivalent staff, it said, adding that average R&D expenditure per business rose by 1.2 percent to 1.8 million NZ dollars.
R&D expenditure as a proportion of gross domestic product fell from 0.98 percent in 2024 to 0.95 percent in 2025, statistics showed.
Large businesses with 100 or more employees, representing just 14 percent of all businesses carrying out R&D, contributed 56 percent of total business R&D expenditure.
Business R&D expenditure for the purpose of information and communications technology reached 858 million NZ dollars, more than doubling since 2018, making it the highest-spending purpose in 2025, followed by manufacturing, Stats NZ said. ■
