Wait and see

September activity in New Zealand’s services sector returned to overall levels seen in July, according to the BNZ - BusinessNZ Performance of Services Index (PSI).

The PSI for September was 56.0, which was 1.2 points lower than August, but almost identical to the July result of 55.9 (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 September value still represented a healthy outcome for the month, with some of the key sub-indices showing lower expansion levels.

Kirk Hope
Chief Executive
BusinessNZ

“Both activity/sales (56.6) and new orders/business (60.3) eased in expansion levels, although employment (54.1) and supplier deliveries (53.5) both picked up. The proportion of positive comments (56.6%) did drop from August, with a higher number of negative comments specifically mentioning uncertainty around the general election".

BNZ Senior Economist Doug Steel said that "in contrast to measures of business confidence that have noticeably dipped around the election, the PSI, as a survey of changes in actual activity, has held up well".