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WARWICK SMITH/Stuff
Economic recession or not, some in Palmerston North are feeling it more than others.
While New Zealand may be in a technical economic recession, Palmerston North’s economy is still performing strongly and the figures are not available to confirm whether the city is in a recession or not.
City economist Stacey Bell said economic activity in Palmerston North was still relatively robust in the year to the end of March, with strong employment and earnings growth.
The number of city people in employment was up by 384 in the March quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago, an increase of 1.1%, and earnings increased by 8.5%.
Bell said for many of those people receiving higher incomes, it would not feel like a recession.
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But many other businesses and households were doing it tough paying high interest rates and coping with the cost of living.
Bell said the Infometrics data that was used to compile the Palmerston North quarterly economic update related to the year-on-year change each quarter.
While she would like to have access to quarterly GDP figures that could be directly compared to the national situation, that data was not available at a local council level.
Bell said whether the city was in recession was not necessarily the most important thing.
Given the cyclical nature of the economy, it had needed to get to a point where monetary policy started to dampen spending, and pressure to raise interest rates any further could ease.
Some of the local highlights showed GDP had grown 20.5% in five years, ahead of the national figure of 14.1%.
However, in the past year that growth had been 2.8%, a whisker behind the national 2.9%, and across the wider Manawatū including the city it was 2.6%.
Retail spending was up, including tourism spending, and new dwelling consents also grew in the year to April 2023.
The value of non-residential building consents was up 28.2%, with Te Whatu Ora MidCentral’s $35.7 million investment in new building helping to drive the increase.
The housing market was showing signs of stabilising, and the number of families waiting for public housing fell by 18.9%.
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