New Zealand Services PMI Improves To 49.7 In December - BusinessNZ

(RTTNews) - The services sector in New Zealand continued to contract in December, albeit at a slower pace, the latest survey from BusinessNZ revealed on Tuesday with a Performance of Services Index score of 49.7.

That's up from 47.2 in November, although it remains barely beneath the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

Individually, indices for sales (50.7), new orders (51.7) and stocks (51.0) were expanding, while employment (49.2) and supplier deliveries (49.5) contracted.

"The PSI and PMI combined leaves us cautious as to what to expect for the bounce in GDP for Q4, and momentum into the start of 2022. Of course, the immediate factor is how the economy handles Omicron circulating in the community, under the new traffic light system. Movement into the Red setting impacts gathering limits, which is clearly important to many service industries," said BNZ Senior Economist Craig Ebert.