Thursday, 17 September 2020 11:21

COVID-19: Record GDP fall, ag sector suffers smallest drop

Written by  Staff Reporters
The quarterly GDP fall is the largest recorded since the current series began in 1987. The quarterly GDP fall is the largest recorded since the current series began in 1987.

Agriculture has kept losses to a minimum as New Zealand reported its largest ever GDP drop on record.

Gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 12.2% in the June 2020 quarter, Stats NZ announced this morning.

The quarterly fall is the largest recorded since the current series began in 1987.

The fall is comparable to many other countries amid the pandemic; the GDP in the same quarter in Australia fell 7%, Canada 11.5%, Japan 7.9%, the United Kingdom 20.4%, and 9.1% in the United States.

Some industries were more affected than others by the border closure and alert levels restrictions in place during the June quarter.

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing recorded the smallest drop, falling just 2.2%.

Retail trade and accommodation and transport, postal, and warehousing recorded the largest drops, falling 25.2% and 38.7% respectively.

Financial and insurance services was the only industry that grew, with a 0.7% increase.

“Industries like retail, accommodation and restaurants, and transport saw significant declines in production because they were most directly affected by the international travel ban and strict nationwide lockdown,” said national accounts senior manager Paul Pascoe.

New Zealand started the June 2020 quarter in alert level 4 lockdown, reaching alert level 1 on 8 June 2020.

“While level 4 restrictions were in place for most of April, the gradual return to level 1 over the course of the quarter meant that businesses were able to open up again and many people returned to places of work,” said Pascoe.

Annually, GDP fell by 2.0%. This is the first annual decline since the March 2010 quarter.

More like this

Locally grown fruits, veg in full supply

One of the country’s two largest supermarket chains is reporting that for the first time since the disruption of Covid, they have largely full supply on almost all fruit and vegetables grown locally.

Less hot air

OPINION: According to Statistics NZ, the country's greenhouse gas emissions fell 2.7% in the March quarter, the largest quarterly decrease since March 2010 "excluding the pandemic years".

Featured

Time for young farmers to step up

Departing Fonterra director Leonie Guiney is urging the next generation of co-operative farmers to step up and be there to lead in future.

Net zero pilot farm success

A net zero pilot dairy farm, set up in Taranaki two years ago to help reduce on-farm emissions, is showing promising results.

DairyNZ chair wants cross-party deal

New DairyNZ chair Tracy Brown says bipartisan agreement among political parties on emissions pricing and freshwater regulations would greatly help farmers.

National

Winter grazing warning

Every time people from overseas see photographs of cows up to their hocks in mud it's bad for New Zealand.

ANZ defends farm lending rates

The country's largest lender to the agriculture sector says it's not favouring home loans over farm and business lending.

Machinery & Products

Expo set to wow again

Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo…

A year of global challenges

As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Review SOEs!

OPINION: NIWA has long weathered complaints about alleged stifling of competition in forecasting, and more recently, claims of lack of…

Bank reset

OPINION: Adding to calls to get banks to 'back off', NZ Agri Brokers director Andrew Laming has revealed that the…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter