WELLINGTON, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand's gross domestic product (GDP) rebounded by record 14 percent in the September 2020 quarter, following a revised 11.0 percent fall in the previous quarter where COVID-19 restrictions impacted economic activity, New Zealand's statistics department Stats NZ said on Thursday.
There were fewer restrictions on activity in the September 2020 quarter than during the COVID-19 lockdown-impacted June 2020 quarter, though Auckland was at alert level 3 in August.
"This resulted in the strongest quarterly growth in GDP on record in New Zealand, as the economy bounced back from the lockdown earlier in the year when non-essential businesses closed," national accounts senior manager of Stats NZ Paul Pascoe said.
The government's decision to act quickly in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to a better-than-expected economic recovery, New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Grant Robertson said on Wednesday.
The Treasury released its latest economic and fiscal forecasts in the 2020 Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update.
While New Zealand's economy contracted in 2020, it is forecast to rebound strongly in 2021 outperforming regions such as the Euro Zone, Britain and Japan, according to the forecasts.
"Global economic activity is expected to continue to recover over the rest of the forecast period, although the pace of recovery is likely to be uneven as countries contend with renewed virus outbreaks and the resulting containment measures," Robertson said in a statement.
The employment outlook has also improved, with a much lower forecast peak in unemployment and a faster recovery in labor force participation, Robertson said. Enditem
