Expansion levels for New Zealand’s services sector eased off in September, according to the BNZ – BusinessNZ Performance of Services Index (PSI).

The PSI for September was 55.8 (A PSI reading above 50.0 indicates that the service sector is generally expanding; below 50.0 that it is declining).  This was down 2.8 points from August, but still above the long-term average of 53.6 for the survey.

BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope said that the survey was still showing ongoing expansion, with the two key sub-indexes of New Activity/Sales (59.2) and New Orders/Business (62.9) remaining in a very healthy position. Stocks/inventories (54.9) pulled back from August, while Employment (50.5) and Supplier Deliveries (49.7) showed little to no change from the previous month.

In line with the overall drop in expansion levels, the proportion of positive comments for September (47.9%) reverted back to being behind the proportion of negative comments. Staffing problems, supply chain disruptions and offshore issues continued to be the key negative influences on businesses surveyed.

BNZ Senior Economist Craig Ebert said that “the composite PCI held together at 54.4 in free-weighted terms, while the GDP weighted composite came in at 55.4, from 58.2 in August. These marry with our view that Q3 GDP increased about 1.0%”.