Westpac predicts three more OCR cuts this year
Ongoing price issues for the dairy sector and the peaking of the Canterbury rebuild mean New Zealand’s near-term growth outlook is no longer looking so rosy, states Westpac’s latest weekly commentary.
Westpac chief economist Dominick Stephens said last week’s fall in dairy prices, along with evidence of slowing reconstruction activity in Canterbury, have percolated through to New Zealand consumer and business sentiment.
In recent surveys, businesses’ expectations for their own activity fell sharply for the second month in a row, and the decline was concentrated among construction firms as well as farmers.
This own-activity measure tends to be a leading indicator for GDP growth, and signals a slower economy through mid-2015, Stephens said.
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