The domestic focus for markets last week was the release of the admittedly dated national accounts for the December quarter. The preferred production-based measure of GDP revealed a further 0.1% contraction in activity during the quarter and so indicated that the economy had re-entered a shallow “technical recession” in the second half of last year. Activity was also 0.3% lower than a year earlier. This was a fractionally weaker outcome than we and the RBNZ had expected, with a small downward revision to activity in earlier quarters leaving the economy about 0.2ppts smaller than estimated. However, the detail of the ... (full story)