Analysts at Westpac offer their view on New Zealand’s Q2 GDP release due on the cards at 2245 GMT later on Wednesday.
Key Quotes:
“After a few quarters of patchy, subdued growth, the stars seem to have aligned for the New Zealand economy during the June quarter. Recent activity indicators have shown growth ranging from modest to strong across a wide range of sectors. We expect a 0.9% rise in GDP for the quarter.
In part, our forecast reflects some big one-off gains in particular services sectors that are unlikely to be repeated. However, there are also some temporary negatives. Shutdowns in fuel and methanol production will subtract around 0.2% from Q2 growth but will boost Q3 growth by the same amount.
The Q2 result could have an important bearing on the Reserve Bank’s thinking, given its low expectation of 0.5% growth and its recent comments that it is nearing the trigger point for OCR cuts.”