Kirk Hope

Chief Executive, BusinessNZ

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New Zealand's services sector experienced a softening in expansion across all main indicators, according to the BNZ - BusinessNZ Performance of Services Index (PSI).

The PSI for September was 54.1. This was 3.8 points down from August, and very similar to the 54.3 recorded in July (A PSI reading above 50.0 indicates that the service sector is generally expanding; below 50.0 that it is declining).

BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope said that while the September result still indicated healthy expansion, comments from respondents tended to show a few seasonal factors at play that gave pause to expansion.

"A number of those who provided negative comments tended to focus on current weather conditions, as well as school holidays affecting operations. This culminated in the proportion of negative comments rising from 34.8% in August to 39.3% in September."

Regarding the latest PSI results, BNZ Senior Economist Doug Steel said "looking through the monthly volatility, there has been some trend slowing in the PSI over recent months. It appears firm's difficulty in finding staff is one of the obviously many factors involved".

View the PSI Time Series Data

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Main Indicies

Regional Results

Doug Steel

Senior Economist, BNZ

Slower service

The Performance of Services Index (PSI) suggests service sector growth is tempering. The PSI slowed to a middling 54.1 in September from a very strong 57.9 in August.
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Are large firms telling us something?

Expansion, albeit at a touch slower pace, remains widespread with positive readings across the major headline indices covering sales, employment, and new orders as well as across all industries and regions and most firm sizes.
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Economic growth robust, but is it slowing?

Combining the PSI and PMI, into a composite (PCI) indicator, suggests ongoing robust economic growth into year's end. But the hint, from the PCI, that growth may be slowing is in contrast to the general strengthening in other recent business (and consumer) confidence surveys
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View the BNZ Services Landscape

BNZ - BusinessNZ PSI Time Series

July 2014 – September 2016

International Results

J.P. Morgan Global Manufacturing PSI^TM
5 Oct 2016

51.5

54.6

GDP-Weighted Index

55.9

Free-Weighted Index

The seasonally adjusted BNZ - BusinessNZ Performance of Composite Index or PCI (which combines the PMI and PSI) saw the two options for measuring the PCI both experience a decrease in expansion from August to September.
 
The September GDP-Weighted Index (54.6) decreased 2.9 points from August, while the Free-Weighted Index (55.9) fell 0.8 points. The stronger decrease in the GDP-Weighted result was mainly due to a weaker PSI value for September.

BNZ - BusinessNZ PCI Time Series

July 2014 – 2016