Retail spending drives GDP increase in September quarter

December 19, 2019
Finance Minister Grant Robertson

New Zealand's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has increased 2.7 per cent over the year and 0.7 per cent in the September quarter. 

Stats NZ's Gary Dunnet said the increase was boosted by retail spending, which had a growth of 2.4 per cent in the quarter. 

Finance Minister Grant Robertson said it showed New Zealand's economy was in "good shape amid international headwinds like the US-China trade war, the uncertainty around Brexit and geopolitical tensions". 

"Alongside the lowest unemployment in a decade, the highest wage growth in a decade and increasing signs of consumer and business confidence this year, the GDP data shows the New Zealand economy enters 2020 in good shape."

However National say that "productivity, which is what really matters, continues to stagnate". 

National's spokesperson Paul Goldsmith said revisions to older GDP data showed a "GDP per person recession in the first two quarters of 2019.

"The New Zealand economy has had a real fall from grace in the past two years," he said. 

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