New Zealand’s services sector experienced an increase in expansion across all main indicators, according to the BNZ – BusinessNZ Performance of Services Index (PSI).
The PSI for August was 57.9. This was 3.4 points up from July, and the highest value since December 2015 (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 it was pleasing to see all sub-indexes improve from July, with activity/sales (61.6) and new orders/business (60.8) both rising back above the 60 point range.
“Looking at comments, the proportion of positive comments for August (65.2%) was largely unchanged from July (65.6%), with a number mentioning new customers and markets creating enhanced opportunities for growth.”
Regarding the latest PSI results, BNZ Senior Economist Doug Steel said “The widespread positivity in August’s PSI combined with the overall good-looking Performance of Manufacturing Index from last week indicates above trend economic growth has continued into the second half of the year”.
Email:
