NZ Economy: Filling In The Potholes

Business confidence continues to climb, but the latest BusinessNZ Planning Forecast expects the economy will be slow to show significant signs of improvement over the forecast period to March 2026.

BusinessNZ Director of Advocacy Catherine Beard says economic results remain a mixed bag in 2024.

"Improved results in business confidence can be partly attributed to the Government’s intention to reduce regulatory burden, including the recent introduction of a resource consenting fast-track.

"But other factors having a positive impact include sentiment that inflation has peaked, along with increased net migration numbers being at an all time high.

"Across many sectors, the reality is that businesses are still doing it tough with a range of factors impacting on investment, profitability and sales. New Zealand’s manufacturing sector remains in negative territory according to the latest BNZ - BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index.

"So while businesses are more positive about our economic future, the reality is that we’re not out of the woods yet."

The overall BusinessNZ Economic Conditions Index (a measure of NZ’s major economic indicators) sits at 4 for the March 2024 quarter, an improvement of 2 on the previous quarter and an improvement of 1 on a year ago. The Index tracks 33 economic indicators including GDP, export volumes, commodity prices, inflation, debt, and business and consumer confidence.

The full planning forecast is available now on the BusinessNZ website.

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