12 August 2024
Kiwibank report: ‘Southland leading the way’
“The South Island is faring better than the North, with Southland leading the way.”
Southland continues to lead the way when it comes to regional economic markers with Kiwibank the latest to put the province in top spot nationally.
Last month ASB described Southland as “a force to be reckoned with” economically, as part of a research report.
Each quarter ASB puts together a “Regional Scoreboard” which ranks regions based on year-to-year growth across a range of measures. It includes employment, building consents, and retail sales.
ASBS ranked Southland in top spot toppling Auckland who had previously held the No 1 spot.
Southland rocketed up the list from No 11 in the last quarter to top spot last month.
Kiwibank has now released its Regional Score which also has Southland leading the way economically in New Zealand.
Kiwibank’s Regional Score summarises seven economic indicators in 13 regions across New Zealand.
Included in the scoring assessment are: population growth, retail sales, employment, house price index, house sales, building consents, and international tourism electronic card transactions.
They combine the different measures and convert each average into a score from 1-10.
Southland picked up a score of 5 – the highest in the country.
“The South Island is faring better than the North, with Southland leading the way,” the Kiwibank report says.
“Murihiku may be the ‘tail end of the land’, but it is at the top of the leaderboard with the highest score of 5.
“As building activity in the rest of the country has slowed down, Southland has ramped up. New dwelling consents are growing at pace, supporting construction and housing activity in the region.”
The Kiwibank report says building consents in Southland had increased by a whopping 46% year-on-year for the three months up to May 2024.
The report says all regions recorded a decline in residential building consents in the three months to May barring Southland and Canterbury, and Canterbury’s increase was just 3%.
Southland Business Chamber CEO Sheree Carey said it was good to see the region was strong as part of another national assessment.
Although she did acknowledge there were lots of business in various sectors still struggling in the south and was looking forward to inflation going down in the next year to help ease some of that pain.
The Kiwibank’s Regional Score report can be found here.
Source: The Southland Tribune – 12 August 2024