The world is looking a little brighter for Kiwis compared to three or four years ago, as a flow-on effect of the consistent upswing in manufacturing and service industries, said Employers and Manufacturers Association manager of advocacy, Bruce Goldsworthy.

Growth in business (even at small levels) has the positive effects of secure and increased employment and the availability of goods and services to improve people’s lives. Furthermore, this means more tax is paid, and Government services also become more certain.

 Mr Goldsworthy says, “We have been cautiously watching the results of our own monthly surveys of member organisations in both manufacturing and services, as well as different bank surveys of business confidence and retail spending.

 “We can now say the trend for the past six months shows the previous volatility has settled down and we see some consistent improvement. Based on these results, we can look forward to modest and continued growth.

“We really need to look at how we are doing in relation to manufacturing in other parts of the world, as a major factor in our own situation is the level of global demand and supply. The most recent BNZ-BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) statistics suggest that compared to our compatriots in other major manufacturing countries we are holding up pretty well.”

For example, the PMI for April in the USA was 51.3, Japan 50.4, the Eurozone 46.8, Australia 36.7 and New Zealand 54.5.

 When the Index is above 50 points it shows survey participants are in expansion, and below 50, that their orders, employment levels and other measures of activity are declining.

 “Another encouraging signal from the April PMI was that the index for new orders stood at 59.4, well into positive territory,” Mr Goldsworthy says.

Likewise in the April BNZ-BusinessNZ Performance of Services Index (PSI), the USA was 54.4, the UK 52.4, the Eurozone 46.6, Australia 44.1 and New Zealand 56.1 – for New Zealand, the highest April result since the survey began in 2007.

The seasonally-adjusted BNZ-BusinessNZ Performance of Composite Index or PCI (which combines the PMI and PSI) for April stood at 56.1.