Activity in the services sector is continuing to improve, but remains in contraction territory as the country moved into the Covid traffic light system.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The BNZ Business New Zealand Performance of Services Index was up 2.5 points in December, to 49.7.
A reading below 50 indicated the sector is contracting.
BNZ senior economist Craig Ebert said months on from the Delta outbreak in August, the sector had not been able to shake off its contractive tone.
Accommodation, cafes and restaurants remained dire and in deep contraction last month, while there was significant gain in the cultural, recreation and personal sectors.
Production was improved but new orders slipped although stayed in expansion
Ebert said he was cautious as to how good economic growth might have been towards the end of last year when he added this survey to last week's one on manufacturing.
BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope said that the ongoing move towards climbing out of contraction was encouraging, but illustrated the difficult period that many service sector businesses had faced.
"On a positive note, the key sub-index of activity/sales recorded its first positive activity level since July, while New Orders/Business recorded consecutive expansion levels.
"The return to expansion for the sector as a whole will largely depend on these two indices displaying higher and consistent expansion in the coming months," Hope said.