Auckland city business and economy report 2008
Executive summary |
Past economic performance |
Relative international economic performance |
Economic structure |
Population |
Labour market |
Retail trade and tourism |
Building and property |
Inflation, interest rates and the exchange rate |
Focus on manufacturing |
Focus on Rosebank 2030 |
Economic outlook
| Auckland city in figures |
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Past economic performance
Growth in the Auckland city economy has been trending
downwards since the immigration-fuelled peak of 2003 and is estimated to have
grown by only 1.1 per cent in the year to March 2008. |
The city's economy grew considerably slower than the New
Zealand economy as a whole (3.0 per cent) in the March 2008 year, largely due to
the poor performance of a number of key industries.
- Activity in the sizeable construction
industry has fallen considerably from its peak in 2005. The decline has been
driven by slowing population growth due to falling net migration, along with a
reduction in the number of public sector non-residential projects.
- The education sector has declined
further due to a significant fall off in the number of Asian students arriving
in Auckland city to study.
- Accommodation, restaurants and bars have
been negatively affected by high interest rates, rising food and fuel prices and
slowing tourist growth. Higher interest rates have a larger impact on consumers'
discretionary expenditure in Auckland city than in other parts of the country
due to the higher proportion of disposable income spent on mortgage repayments.
- The printing industry declined due to a
drop in demand from other industries under pressure, including retail. A number
of other manufacturing sub-industries have also suffered from the high exchange
rate.
Annual GDP growth1
|
 |
Source: Infometrics and Statistics New Zealand.
|
Despite the poor performance of a number of industries,
Auckland city's traditional growth leaders enabled the city to maintain positive
growth. Finance and insurance, property services, business services and
communication services have continued to perform solidly through the period of
slower overall growth.
The table below shows how Auckland city's industries are
ranked (in percentage growth terms) over the five years to March 2008.
Only the top two performing industries (communication
services and government administration and defence) grew faster in Auckland city
than at the national level. Even Auckland city's leading industries - including
finance and insurance, and property and business services - underperformed
relative to the national industries.
Industry growth ranking, 2003-20082
| Rank |
Industry |
Annual growth
2003-2008 |
GDP
($million, 1996 prices) |
| Auckland city |
New Zealand |
Auckland city |
| 1 |
Communication services |
6.5% |
4.7% |
2,523 |
| 2 |
Government administration and defence |
6.2% |
5.4% |
548 |
| 3 |
Finance and insurance |
4.7% |
5.1% |
3,044 |
| 4 |
Retail trade |
3.3% |
5.1% |
1,117 |
| 5 |
Health and community services |
3.2% |
4.2% |
1,044 |
| 6 |
Property and business services |
2.7% |
3.8% |
5,077 |
| 7 |
Cultural and recreational services |
1.5% |
3.8% |
680 |
| 8 |
Accommodation, cafes and restaurants |
1.3% |
2.0% |
336 |
| 9 |
Wholesale trade |
1.2% |
3.1% |
2,636 |
| 10 |
Construction |
0.9% |
3.8% |
729 |
| 11 |
Personal and other services |
0.5% |
2.8% |
337 |
| 12 |
Transport and storage |
0.4% |
3.0% |
1,033 |
| 13 |
Manufacturing |
0.2% |
0.5% |
2,827 |
| 14 |
Education |
-0.3% |
0.5% |
735 |
| 15 |
Electricity, gas and water supply |
-1.3% |
-0.4% |
283 |
Source: Infometrics estimates.
1
2008 growth for Auckland city and Auckland region has been estimated as the
final quarter data had not been released at the time of publication.
2
Excludes industries with GDP less than $100 million in Auckland city.
These are agriculture, forestry and fishing, and mining.
Published August 2008
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