{"id":483406,"date":"2026-06-18T09:49:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T09:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/483406\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T09:49:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T09:49:16","slug":"economy-grew-0-8-before-oil-crisis-hit-new-data-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/483406\/","title":{"rendered":"Economy grew 0.8% before oil crisis hit, new data shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Zealand’s economy grew 0.8% in the March quarter, marking another quarter of expansion as exports and manufacturing lifted activity, new figures show. <\/p>\n

The rise, reported by Stats NZ this morning, follows a 0.5% increase in the December 2025 quarter, with annual GDP growth also sitting at 0.8%.<\/p>\n

March figures cover a quarter when conflict in the Middle East erupted in its second half.<\/p>\n

Stats NZ macroeconomic spokesperson Jason Attewell said growth was broad-based, with nine of 16 industries recording an increase in economic activity over the quarter.<\/p>\n

Manufacturing was the largest upward contributor, up 1.9%. <\/p>\n

Attewell said the sector was a major part of the economy.<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

New Zealand’s economy grew 0.8% in the March quarter, marking another quarter of expansion as exports and manufacturing lifted activity, new figures show. (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n

“New Zealand’s manufacturing industry is a large and diverse sector of the economy, making up around 8.0% of GDP,” he said.<\/p>\n

The rise in manufacturing was led by a 4.0% jump in transportation equipment, machinery, and equipment manufacturing, alongside a 1.7% lift in food, beverage, and tobacco manufacturing.<\/p>\n

Business services rose 1.1% and wholesale trade climbed 2.4%, both helping push GDP higher.<\/p>\n

But not every sector shared in the gains. <\/p>\n

Mining was the largest downward contributor, down 11.6%, driven primarily by a fall in oil and gas extraction. Construction also slipped, down 1.0% in the quarter. <\/p>\n

“Declines in both residential and non-residential building contributed to the overall fall in construction activity in this period,” Attewell said.<\/p>\n

Stats NZ said the measurement of GDP in the March quarter “was not heavily impacted by the Middle East conflict and late-quarter fuel price increases”. <\/p>\n

“Our headline measure of GDP is presented in volume terms, with the impact of price change removed from the measurement. <\/p>\n

“Therefore, price changes on their own will not impact GDP.”<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said officials were “monitoring the suitability of our usual methods for accurate measurement of GDP for future releases” .<\/p>\n

They said in future, the level of “activity in various segments of the economy might be significantly impacted by the Middle East conflict and elevated fuel prices”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand’s economy grew 0.8% in the March quarter, marking another quarter of expansion as exports and manufacturing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-483406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}