A lift in new orders/business contributed to New Zealand’s services sector experiencing a lift in expansion levels in May, according to the BNZ – BusinessNZ Performance of Services Index (PSI).
The PSI for May was 57.3, which was 0.9 points higher than April (A PSI reading above 50.0 indicates that the service sector is generally expanding; below 50.0 that it is declining). It was also the second highest level of expansion for the last 11 months.
BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope said that the last three months have shown healthy activity in the sector, and certainly up on activity for the three months prior.
“New orders/business (64.6) was at its highest level since January 2017, while the remaining sub-indices were all up from April. Although the proportion of positive comments in May (58.0%) was down from April (65.1%), comments received took into account the boost in new business, with many outlining more bookings, increased capacity to work more hours and new client acquisitions”.
BNZ Senior Economist Doug Steel said that “the positive signals in May from the PSI reinforce improvement we have seen in the index over recent months, following a somewhat weaker patch earlier in the year”.
