Services sector contracts for a fourth month

BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope said the last time the index contracted for four consecutive months was in the first half of 2009.

Staff reporters

Mon, 15 Mar 2021

The services sector, which accounts for about 70% of the economy, continues to struggle.The latest BNZ-BusinessNZ performance of services index came in at 49.1 points for February – a reading below 50 indicates the sector is contracting and this is the fourth consecutive month the sector has contracted. Nevertheless, that was an improvement from 48 in January and it is well above November's reading at 46.7. The long-term average for this survey is 53.8.BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope said the last time the index contracted f...

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