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 | Download the report

Relative international economic performance

Auckland region's economy has underperformed relative to the economies of many of its international comparator cities over the past ten years. The Auckland region ranked in the middle of the nine selected cities when measured according to growth in total GDP between 1997 and 2007. However, much of the city's economic growth was driven by an expanding population - the Auckland region experienced the second highest population growth among the nine cities.

Consequently, Auckland's ranking drops to second from the bottom when growth is measured according to GDP per capita. The relatively slow growth in Auckland's GDP per capita reflects its low productivity growth. When measured in US dollars after being adjusted for relative price differences, Auckland's GDP per capita was the lowest among the nine cities.

The 2007 Demographia study ranked the Auckland region 80th out of 116 cities (on a GDP per capita basis) with populations exceeding one million in Europe, North America, Japan and Australasia.³

Relative international performance

Source: Infometrics estimates.

³ Source: Demographia (2007), Gross Domestic Product (GDP-PPP) Estimates for Metropolitan Regions in Western Europe, North America, Japan and Australasia. (www.med.govt.nz/upload/53549/Indicators-Report-2007.pdf)
⁴ GDP and population growth was assumed to be equal to state growth for Australian and Canadian cities.
⁵ Purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates were used to adjust for price differences between countries. Official exchange rates were used in the 2007 report.

Published August 2008