If you’re not having more people coming in, moving around, spending, doing stuff, it makes it harder. If you look at the national house price numbers, that’s pretty flat for the year. “It’s always difficult looking at the official GDP numbers because they told us that the second quarter in particular was very, very weak. So it’s difficult to get an accurate read, I think, on what’s been happening with the economy just from looking at those figures. “All of that relates to the fact that the spending numbers we are seeing are looking better.

Source: New Zealand Herald December 24, 2025 17:10 UTC