BNZ – BusinessNZ PSI – December 2016

New Zealand’s services sector experienced further expansion during December to round out a solid year of activity, according to the BNZ - BusinessNZ Performance of Services Index (PSI).
 
The PSI for December was 58.4.  This was 0.3 points up from November, and the highest result for 2016 (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 2016 ended off on a high note, with both production/sales (63.5) and new orders/business (60.9) remaining about the 60-point mark. 

“The average activity result for 2016 was 56.6.  While this was slightly down on the 57.8 recorded for 2015, it was still the third highest average yearly result since the survey began."
 
BNZ Senior Economist Craig Ebert said that "unlike its PMI cousin, the PSI's new orders/business index remained clearly above normal.  This heralds sustained strong expansion in sales activity, which was already pumping in December ".
 
View PSI Time Series Data


Services Landscape
 
The PSI
New Zealand's Performance of Services Index (PSI) maintained a perky pace in December, with an index reading of 58.4.
Read more  → 
 
QSBO Services
That the services sector continues to barrel along rather well was also in evident in last week's Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion (QSBO).
Read more  → 
 
Retail
One of the question marks we have around the services sector is the performance of the retail sector.  We say this with December's electronic card transactions having failed to bounce back from their November dip, capping our expectations around Q4 retail volume growth.
Read more  → 
 
Employment
One of the factors supporting consumer spending, of course, is the labour market.  Today's PSI still has good news re the latter.
Read more  → 
 
View full BNZ Services Landscape