NZ: Strong housing data - ANZ

ANZ analysts note that the volume of building work put in place in New Zealand rose 2.7% q/q in Q4 to be up 4.1% over the year.

Key Quotes

“Q4’s rise was above market expectations for a 1% q/q rise and our expectation for a 0.8% fall. Nominal activity increased 3.5% q/q (8.2% y/y).”

“Over the quarter, the increase in volumes was driven by strong non-residential work, which was up 5.0% q/q, following a soft (0.2%) print last quarter. This was well above our expectations for a 1.4% rise.”

“Taken together with today’s Quarterly Manufacturing Survey, which was weaker than expected (excluding meat and dairy), we see balanced risk to our provisional Q4 GDP estimate of 0.6% q/q. We will release our full GDP preview next week.”