Building & tourism numbers up - and so are emigrants
Both construction and tourism figures are on the up, according to data released this morning.
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Both construction and tourism figures are on the up, according to data released this morning.
Building work rose 2.9% in the December quarter, 0.9% ahead of average market forecasts, according to the latest Statistics New Zealand figures.
That figure though is off an historic low: the value of new building work had previously slumped to its lowest level since 2001.
There appears to be a Christchurch effect in the figures although Statistics New Zealand warns against being too quick to assume this is the driver of the pick-up.
While there seems to be a greater improvement in Christchurch and its environs, the data is designed for national-level accuracy rather than regional level, and it will not be clear for some time if there is a clear Canterbury-driven impetus.
The trend for the volume of building activity is picking up, finally, after a 15% fall over the past year.
Tourism numbers, meanwhile, are showing a more certain improvement. The number of short term visitors hit 266,800 in January, the largest influx ever in that month.
The Chinese New Year - which fell earlier than usual - seems to have been a factor, with 23,300 visitors from China - an 8,800 increase. There was also a 2600 increase in visitors from Australia.
Annually, visitors are up 3% with 2.603 million visitor arrivals tin the 12 months to January. There were unusually major fluctuations in travel numbers during the year, with Christchurch earthquakes and flight disruptions caused by Chilean volcanic ash pushing visitor numbers down, while the Rugby World Cup pushed the numbers up in the winter months.
Meanwhile long term migration figures, also released today, show a continued net loss - 500 for the month of January.
That takes the annual net loss to 3100, the largest annual loss since 2001.That net figure comprises 83,600 permanent and long term arrivals and 86,700 departures.
Rob Hosking
Mon, 05 Mar 2012
Mon, 05 Mar 2012
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Building & tourism numbers up - and so are emigrants
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