Manawatu bucks national trend

PRESS RELEASE

12.09.08

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Manawatu bucks national trend

Manawatu’s economic performance remains steady in key sectors despite the downturn being experienced throughout the country, according to Vision Manawatu’s Quarterly Economic Performance report released today.

The position is a strong one to be in, says Chief Executive Andrew Powrie.

“Given the state of the economy through out the country our region is doing well,” he said.

“There has been growth happening, it’s just smaller than we have had of late.

The growth results highlight the core strengths in the region in established sectors and the indicators point to continued growth happening in the next year.

“That is a great position for our local economy to be in,” Mr Powrie said.

Retail spending rose during the last year and corresponds with the increase of 12 percent in visitors that stayed overnight.

“Visitors numbers are another likely growth area with their projected increase in spending up to 15 percent – that’s on top of residents spending power.”

While the number of non-residential buildings to be built decreased, the value of the buildings leapt by nearly 50 percent and grew well ahead of the national the level. The construction sector has seen a 12.6 percent increase on last year, while retail sales were buoyant experiencing a rise of 17.3%.

Negative growth was recorded by agriculture, education, healthy and community services and cultural and recreation services sectors.

ENDS

Manawatu_Region_Economic_Performance_YE_Jun_2008.pdf

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