BusinessNZ PSI – February 2017

New Zealand’s services sector remains at a stable and solid level of expansion, according to the BNZ - BusinessNZ Performance of Services Index (PSI).
 
The PSI for February was 58.8.  Although this was 0.7 points lower than January, it was still the second highest level of expansion since November 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 the services sector has remained in a consistent and positive level of expansion for the last four months.
  
“What's continued to drive solid expansion levels has been in no small part due to the sub-indices of activity/sales and new orders/business remaining over the 60-point mark".
 
BNZ Senior Economist Doug Steel said that "with minimal movement over recent months, and even not all much change of the past four years, it might have some wondering if the PSI is telling us anything at all.  In fact, we think it is quite revealing in that the PSI is growing at a strong and steady pace".
  
View PSI Time Series Data
 
Services Landscape

Steady Strong Service
New Zealand’s Performance of Services Index (PSI) remains very strong. February’s 58.8 result is little changed from January’s 59.5. Indeed, the PSI has remained in a tight 58.3 to 59.5 range over the past four months.
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Good For Growth
Ongoing PSI strength in January and February bodes well for GDP growth ahead. So too the bounce in the Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) for February published last Friday.
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Sales and Orders
The PSI details support the headline positivity, with broadbased strength. The sales and new orders components continue to lead the charge – both posting their fourth consecutive month above the 60 mark.
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Houses and Building
Despite the widespread near term positive growth signals above, we are alert to some other indicators cooling over recent months.
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View full BNZ Services Landscape