Weak economy - but some glimmers of hope

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Weak economy - but some glimmers of hope
Business NZ Economic Conditions Index


Business NZ’s Economic Conditions Index (ECI) again highlights the weakness of the New Zealand economy, although displaying a few glimmers of hope.

The ECI for the March quarter is minus 5, an improvement on the minus 9 score for the last quarter.

Overall, it points to several more quarters of negative growth, although containing some evidence that world commodity prices may have bottomed out.

While low international demand for goods and services is still a major issue for many firms, the extreme pessimism of the last quarter of 2008 and early weeks of 2009 appears to be lifting, with business and consumer confidence surveys showing slight improvement.

However the jobs market remains clouded with negative sentiment unchanged from the last quarter, on minus 4.

The Economic Conditions Index (ECI) is a composite index of 32 indicators, including GDP, export volumes, commodity prices and inflation, debt and confidence figures.