Activity in New Zealand's services sector, which accounts for about two-thirds of the economy, expanded in March as the new orders/business sub-index pushed higher as record migration and tourism have underpinned recent gains in consumer spending. The BusinessNZ-BNZ performance of services index rose 0.3 points to 59 in March, the second-highest level of expansion over the past 18 months. New orders/business rose to 66.4 versus 62 in February. However, the drop in house sales is a lesser annual fall than over recent months, indicative of a somewhat better month in March itself. No wonder capital investment intentions by service sector firms are positive and well above average," he said.

Source: New Zealand Herald April 18, 2017 23:37 UTC