New tool to measure economic activity in Canterbury
Christchurch City Council Newsline: 7th September 2020
Canterbury’s economic activity for July 2020 returned to a similar level as the same month last year, according to the first edition of ChristchurchNZ’s Canterbury Economic Activity Index.
The monthly Index has been created by the city’s economic development agency to provide timely insights on the performance of the economy.
It compares Canterbury’s economic indicators to national performance, enabling decision-makers to quickly respond to gaps and opportunities, ultimately helping to inform the socio-economic recovery plan for the city.
The July version of the index found:
- The Canterbury Economic Activity Indicator measures regional economic activity as being 0.7 percent higher than in July 2019. This stands equal to New Zealand as a whole.
- Job seeker support recipients in Canterbury have increased 36 percent from 13,256 in first week of January 2020 to 17,994 in the week ending 14 August 2020.
- Building consents have stabilised - following artificially high levels in May - as processing capacity improved, seeing decreases of 19 percent for Canterbury when comparing June and May 2020.
- July 2020 compared to the same month last year saw decreases in total building consents of 14.3 percent for Canterbury.
- Total spending in Canterbury reached $693m in July 2020 - up 9 percent on the same month last year. However the spending profile across sectors has altered significantly with some seeing large drops, and others increases in spending compared with the same time last year.
Learn more about the Canterbury Economic Activity Index.