Despite the localized pain it caused, the overall economy appears to have weathered the delta outbreak and lockdown restrictions much better than expected, economists say. The numbers for New Zealand’s third-quarter GDP performance are finally falling on Thursday, and economists are forecasting a drop of between 3 and 4.5 percent. This large deviation from the RBNZ projections confirmed the “inflationary bias” the BNZ saw in the outlook, he said. “This earlier forecast was based on our assessment of how much activity would be restricted at level 4, level 3, and so on,” said Steven. “First, GDP growth was likely very strong in the first half of the quarter (before Delta was discovered), building on the momentum of strong GDP growth in the second quarter.”“Second, the strength of regional activity (i.e.

Source: New Zealand Herald December 12, 2021 17:47 UTC