Source: New Zealand Treasury:
The April update of the Regional Activity Indices (RAIs) was released today.
Key points to note:
- All fourteen regions displayed a very large upward spike relative to April last year – when the country was in national lockdown.
- This unusually large signal is a symptom of the annual percentage change methodology that is used to construct the indices, but underlines the strength and breadth of the recovery a year on.
- We expect the spike in activity to spill over into next month’s release, after which the indices should settle down again.
For more details, you’ll find the RAIs on page 5 of this week’s Weekly Economic Update.
The Regional Activity Indices (RAIs) are a set of experimental indicators that seek to track how regional economies are performing in near real-time.
The RAIs will be updated 2-3 weeks after the close of each month and will be published within the Treasury’s Weekly Economic Update.
The data for the RAIs, as well as most of the input data, is available to view and download on the Stats NZ COVID-19 data portal. Further documentation on how to use the indices, and how they are constructed, is also available from the Regional Activity Indices page on the Treasury website.
Last updated:
Friday, 28 May 2021
