GDP June 2022 Quarter Values Released — How did we do?
The first three months of this year weren’t exactly perfect for New Zealand’s economy — on a quarterly basis, our economy shrank by 0.2 percent, and the annual growth rate fell from 5.6 percent to 5.1 percent. Economists started using the dreaded word ‘recession’ (politicians call it ‘negative growth’), and most of us felt the pinch of rising inflation and mortgage rates.
With the economy at a potential tipping point, we were all anxiously waiting for the latest official figures for the second quarter. GDPLive tracked quarterly growth at the end of June at 1.765 percent, with the anticipated turn-around resulting from increasing net exports. Annual growth, however, was tracked at only 1.108 percent.
Today, Statistics New Zealand announced a quarterly growth rate for June 20022 of 1.7 percent and an annual growth rate of 1.0 percent. As predicted, quarterly growth is up, which is a good sign but the considerable decrease in the annual growth suggests that our economy might continue to contract further.
GDPLive’s tracked values were spot on and suggest that New Zealand might just avoid a recession. Key factors, however, are a quick recovery of our net exports and a fast return of travellers and international students to give our tourism and education sectors the long-awaited boost.
