New Zealand’s services sector returned to its recent level of consistent and healthy expansion during May, according to the BNZ – BusinessNZ Performance of Services Index (PSI).

The PSI for May was 58.8. This was 5.6 points higher than April, and a return to expansion levels seen during five of the last six months (A PSI reading above 50.0 indicates that the service sector is generally expanding; below 50.0 that it is declining).

BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope said that as mentioned last month, April’s drop was due to a number of external factors, which have corrected themselves for May.

“Four of the five sub-indices increased in expansion levels during May, with the key indicators of activity/sales (63.1) and new orders/business (63.2) both back over the 60-point mark.”

“With the proportion of positive comments (68.2%) from respondents also at a very healthy level, we would expect continued expansion ahead.”

BNZ Senior Economist Craig Ebert said “we were relieved to see the PSI return with such a vengeance in May.  We’ll take a (seasonally adjusted) result of 58.8 any day of the week”.