Kiwis migrating to Australia have doubled in the last 10 years from 25,000 in 2003, to over 51,000 in the year to March 2013. The love affair with Australia is fickle, and the slightest cloud on the Australian economic horizon causes the number trekking over to thin out. The flow to Oceania region (mainly Australia) dropped to about 32,000 in 2008-09 but was swelling again long before the Canterbury earthquakes gave people the reason to leave, whatever the prospects in Australia.
15,790 more people arrived in New Zealand than left, for the year ending September 2013. According to Statistics New Zealand’s September 2013 international travel and migration data, New Zealand is seeing continued gains in net permanent migration, after recovering from negative net migration in 2011 and 2012.
Treasury regularly publishes data on the monthly tax take – the tax “outturn” data. These publications are usually released about six weeks after the end of the month. It is some of the earliest data available on how the economy is tracking. The data are reported for both “receipts” (cash that has been received by the collecting agency) and “revenue” (tax that is due, but which may not have actually been paid yet). The latter is an accrual measure, and is the most useful for gauging activity.
Since June this year, food prices have increased by 0.2 percent according to Statistics New Zealand’s latest release of its food price index. The most significant increase came from fruit and vegetable prices in May and June.
While the increasing number of total overseas visitors is good news for our tourism sector, the largest gains in visitor numbers are coming from Australia (up 56,300) and China (up 30,700). While Australia represents our largest visitor market with 45 percent of all visitors in the year to March 2012, Australians tend to spend small amounts when travelling in New Zealand.
Birds Eye View incorporates our flagship publication, BERL Forecasts, which have been issued quarterly since 1957. Birds Eye View is offered electronically. It has the same in-depth, quality articles, but in a format more aligned to the digital age we operate in.
Business NZ’s monthly Performance of Services Index (PSI) declined in March 2012. The seasonally-adjusted index fell 1.9 points from February to 53.9 in March 2012. Despite this fall, the PSI index is up 2.3 points on year-earlier levels.