New Zealand economy recovers from recession with 14% increase in GDP

New Zealand officially rebounded from the recession with a 14 percent rebound in gross domestic product (GDP) during the September quarter, making it the strongest quarterly growth figure on record, Stats NZ said.

Market expectations were for a 13-14 percent quarterly gain.

The quarterly gain follows two successive contractions, the official definition of recession, during the March and June quarters.

However, those two negative quarters dragged the annual GDP figure for the year through September to minus 2.2 percent.

Stats NZ revised the June quarter contraction to 11 percent from 12.2 percent.

There were fewer restrictions on activity in the September 2020 quarter than during the June 2020 quarter affected by the COVID-19 lockdown, although Auckland was at Alert Level 3 in August, Stats NZ said.

“This resulted in the strongest quarterly GDP growth on record in New Zealand as the economy rebounded from lockdown earlier in the year when nonessential deals closed,” senior national accounts manager Paul Pascoe said in a statement.