More economic signals emerge today pointing to a slowdown in economic activity.

The manufacturing decline continued to slow in June but the sector has a way to go before it is expanding again, according to the latest BNZ Capital – Business NZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI).

The seasonally adjusted PMI for June was 46.2, up 3.1 points from May and 1.2 points higher than June last year.

This was the best result for the index since September last year, but it was still well below the 50-point mark that would indicate the sector was generally expanding.

The service sector is still shrinking but the decline appears to be finally slowing, according to the latest BNZ Capital – Business NZ Performance of Services Index (PSI).

In May the PSI increased to 46.2, up 2.5 points from April and almost identical to the February result.

A PSI reading above 50 indicates the service sector is generally expanding while a number below 50 indicates it is generally contracting.

Compared to previous years, the May result was down 2.9 points from May 2008 and 12.3 points down from May 2007.

The "green shoots" of recovery witnessed in the New Zealand economy over the last few weeks may have been weeds – a new survey shows the service industry has suffered a relapse.

After a couple of months of relative improvement the BNZ Capital – Business NZ Performance of Services Index (PSI) has gone downhill again, dropping to 43.7 in April.

This was down 3.4 points from the March PSI, 5.2 points down from April 2008 and 14.6 points down from April 2007 when the economy was at its peak and the PSI averaged 58.1 over the whole year.