Today’s GDP report showed that the New Zealand economy was broadly flat over the December quarter last year, similar to what we and the Reserve Bank expected. The production measure of GDP, which is considered the most reliable on a quarterly basis, contracted by 0.1%. Both the expenditure and income measures (the latter being a new addition to today’s release) were unchanged in inflation-adjusted terms. There were also some modest revisions to growth in the previous quarters. Largely this was because Stats NZ is still updating its estimates of the seasonal factors, which were severely disrupted by the border closure ... (full story)