"The GDP figure for September has finally put paid to the mutterings of the doom merchants," Finance Minister Michael Cullen said today.

"Opposition predictions of a technical recession have been blown out of the water.

"Instead we got growth of 0.7 percent over the September quarter and 4.5 percent over the September year.

"This result suggests that the DEFU forecast for 2.2 percent growth this year may be a little on the light side. That is good news for the country," Dr Cullen said.

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