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Growth in New Zealand services sector nudges up in March

Xinhua, April 19, 2017 Adjust font size:

The solid growth in New Zealand's services sector accelerated slightly last month, according to the latest performance of services index (PSI) out Wednesday.

The BNZ-Business New Zealand PSI for March was 59, on a scale where above 50 indicates expansion and below 50 contraction.

It was 0.3 points higher than February, and the second highest level of expansion over the last 18 months.

Business New Zealand chief executive Kirk Hope said the strong result shown for the new orders/business sub-index contributed to the higher March figure.

"New orders/business (66.4) were at its highest level since June 2007, which should feed through to activity/sales in the months ahead," Hope said.

Combined with 65.6 percent of respondents providing positive comments, the sector was currently in "a solid and positive place."

BNZ senior economist Doug Steel said in the statement the PSI had been "a bit like a stuck record, set on high volume."

"In fact, the volume dial is even getting tweaked up a bit more," Steel said.

The GDP-weighted performance of composite index, which combines the PSI and the performance of manufacturing index, rose by 0.8 points to 59 in March, due to the combined lift in activity across both the manufacturing and services sectors. Endit