WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand’s gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 3.7% in the third quarter from the previous quarter, the second largest decline on record, as the economy was hit by an outbreak of the Delta variant of COVID-19, official data showed on Thursday.
The figure was not as bad as that forecast by economists polled by Reuters, who expected production-based growth to shrink 4.5% for the quarter, while the Reserve Bank of New Zealand had pencilled in a drop of 7.0%.
Annual GDP fell 0.3%, also better than a Reuters poll forecast of a 1.6% drop.
(Reporting by Praveen Menon; editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
