New Zealand exits recession, but economic troubles linger
Al Jazeera
GDP grows 0.2 percent in first quarter, buoyed by record immigration.
New Zealand’s economy has crawled out of recession after back-to-back downturns in the span of 18 months.
Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 0.2 percent in the first three months of the year, official figures showed on Thursday, after a 0.1 percent contraction during the previous quarter.
While better than expected, the uptick was greeted with little fanfare, being largely driven by population growth due to record-high immigration.
On a per capita basis, GDP fell 0.3 percent during the first quarter, the sixth consecutive decline.
“The growth figure is camouflaging weakness,” Craig Renney, an economist and the director of policy at the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, said in a post on X.
