New Zealand December services PMI: 52.1 (prior 53.7)

BusinessNZ Performance of Services Index (PSI) stays in expansion - a decent performance compared with some of the data indicators coming out of New Zealand. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has been hiking rates, as you know, and looks intent to do more even as the economy enters recession. Inflation Inflation Inflation is defined as a quantitative measure of the rate in which the average price level of goods and services in an economy or country increases over a period of time. It is the rise in the general level of prices where a given currency effectively buys less than it did in prior periods.In terms of assessing the strength or currencies, and by extension foreign exchange, inflation or measures of it are extremely influential. Inflation stems from the overall creation of money. This money is m Inflation is defined as a quantitative measure of the rate in which the average price level of goods and services in an economy or country increases over a period of time. It is the rise in the general level of prices where a given currency effectively buys less than it did in prior periods.In terms of assessing the strength or currencies, and by extension foreign exchange, inflation or measures of it are extremely influential. Inflation stems from the overall creation of money. This money is m Read this Term pressure in NZ is still on the up.

December comes in at 52.1

• prior revised up to 53.8

From the report:

• BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope said that while the sector remained in expansion for the last month of 2022, the December result saw the key sub-index of Activity/Sales (52.1) down to its lowest level since February 2022
• BNZ Senior Economist Craig Ebert said that “December marked a significant slowdown in a short space of time for the PSI, although the maintained loftiness in New Orders/Business suggested there was still a lot of demand-side pressure at play”.

NZD/USD not much changed. The PSI tends not to be much of a market mover upon release though.