The New Zealand economy climbed by 0.5 percent in the first quarter of the year but still lower than market expectations as the construction sector weakened. The forecast figure of the central bank is 0.9 percent while the analysts predicted it to attain 0.7 percent, which obviously fell short from both predictions. Despite positive growth for the milk production and a moderate growth of GDP, these were out shadowed by weak data from the construction sector and the mixed results from the service sector. The construction data declined by 2.1 percent for Q1 that negated the 4.3 percent augmentation in agriculture particularly the milk production. An economic analyst described this phenomenon to be transient and the economy will advance at estimated of 3.0 to 3.5 percent this year. Also, other sectors are performing well but there is no need for the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) to adjust its cash rate from a record low of 1.75 percent.
