Rebecca Howard

1 week ago | businessdesk.co.nz | Rebecca Howard

New Zealand’s economy expanded slightly more than expected in the March quarter, but storm clouds are gathering.New Zealand’s gross domestic product lifted 0.8% on quarter in the March quarter versus the December quarter, when it lifted a revised 0.5%.The March figure was slightly higher than the 0.7% expansion most economists had expected.

1 week ago | businessdesk.co.nz | Rebecca Howard

Stats NZ will ditch the traditional paper-based Census from 2030, Statistics Minister Shane Reti says.New Zealand will adopt a new approach using administrative data, supported by a smaller annual survey and targeted data collection, he said.“Relying solely on a nationwide Census day is no longer financially viable. In 2013, the Census cost $104 million.

1 week ago | businessdesk.co.nz | Rebecca Howard

Inflation looks to be running hotter than expected, firming up the view that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will keep interest rates at 3.25% in July.  “May month selected price indexes are unequivocally hawkish. On balance, the monthly data has turned out to be more inflationary than we had expected,” BNZ head of research Stephen Toplis said.The indexes provide monthly price changes for around half of the consumers price index (CPI) basket of goods.

1 week ago | businessdesk.co.nz | Rebecca Howard

Could New Zealand be heading back to a recession? “The combined services and manufacturing data look nothing short of disastrous,” BNZ senior economist Doug Steel said.The BNZ – BusinessNZ Performance of Services Index (PSI) dropped “grimly” from 48.1 in April to 44.0 in May. Last week, the Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) fell from 53.3 in April to 47.5 in May.“Together, they are consistent with the economy returning to recession,” Steel said. “While BNZ is a “long way from for...

1 week ago | businessdesk.co.nz | Rebecca Howard

The economy is likely to have ticked up 0.7% quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of the year, which will add to the view that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will keep the Official Cash Rate on hold at 3.25% in July.The Reserve Bank of NZ (RBNZ) forecasted the economy would grow 0.4% in the May Monetary Policy Statement; however, its Kiwi-GDP Nowcast, a weekly estimate of GDP growth, jumped to 0.6341% on Friday, up from 0.5479% the previous week.