'Heavy' vehicle index is the 'headline', bounces back after the slide in July: up 6.2% m/m

  • prior -5.5%
  • ANZ: strongly supports our contention that the July weakness was related more to weather than changes in economic fundamentals. Of course, broader economic activity would also likely have been disrupted by the terrible July weather, but traffic will be subject to an outsized impact.

The light index +2.6% m/m

  • prior -2.2%
  • ANZ: Looking through the monthly volatility, the Light Traffic Index continues to trend up strongly. This suggests the New Zealand economy has plenty of momentum at present, despite any short-term headwinds coming from election uncertainty.

ANZ remarks:

The indexes are trending up, but despite the bounce-back the trend in the Heavy Traffic Index has flattened off a little.

You can't spell 'truck' without 'fun'!

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The ANZ Truckometer is a set of two economic indicators derived using traffic volume data from around the country

  • ANZ Heavy Traffic Index shows a strong contemporaneous relationship to GDP
  • ANZ Light Traffic Index has a six month lead on activity as measured by GDP