New Zealand's economy grew more than expected in the second quarter of 2022, bringing good news for the country to avoid recession.
After contracting in the first quarter, New Zealand's gross domestic product (GDP) rebounded to a stronger 1.7% in the second quarter, according to data released by Statistics New Zealand.
Annual growth slowed to just 0.4%, lower than the 1% annual rate in the previous quarter.
All the main growth in the services sector with household spending on goods, actually fell in the second quarter.
However, it was offset by growth in the tourism sector following the opening of the country's borders by raising the GDP expenditure measure by 2.1% for the quarter.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has increased interest rates by 275 basis points to 3.0% and is confident it will need to reach at least 4.0% to slow demand enough to curb inflation.
The market is now fully expecting interest rates to reach 4.25% as consumer inflation is still at a 30-year high of 7.3% in the second quarter.
