The BusinessNZ Planning Forecast indicates continued patchy growth in the short term, but with pockets of optimism as the housing market begins to show signs of life and the Christchurch rebuild starts to gain momentum.

 Despite an increasingly subdued global outlook, there are underlying factors which should act in New Zealand’s favour in future, including the growing shift of world economic activity to the Asian region.

 “While short term projections are largely flat, the medium and longer term outlook for New Zealand is improving,” said BusinessNZ economist John Pask.

The BusinessNZ Planning Forecast incorporates BusinessNZ’s Economic Conditions Index (ECI) which tracks 33 indicators, including GDP, export volumes, commodity prices and inflation, debt and confidence figures.

The ECI sits at 8 for the December quarter, up 9 on the previous quarter and up 3 on a year ago.

The BusinessNZ Planning Forecast for the December 2012 quarter is here on www.businessnz.org.nz