Te Waka Economic Radar 17 June 2020

Yesterday 16 June marked the end of the country’s first week at Alert Level 1.

Te Waka, with the support of Waikato Regional Council Economists Blair Keenan and Sarah MacKay, continues to collate data to gauge what is happening in the Waikato economy.

Charts in this week’s Radar show some improvement and stabilisation of trends from last week, detailed in this report.

Due to COVID-19’s relatively stable nature throughout the country and Waikato region, we have made the decision to move to publishing Economic Radars fortnightly, with our next report to be available 1 July.

While noting stabilisation of certain trends, there remains uncertainty surrounding:

1. International Markets – many countries’ health and economic challenges relating to COVID-19 are still developing (i.e. in early stages relative to NZ).
   COVID-19 Free NZ – Yesterday 16 June, NZ was marked to have two new cases of COVID-19.
2. Uncertainty remains as to whether these cases can be contained and whether additional cases will emerge under our ‘less restrictive’ Alert Level 1 environment.
3. Post Government Survival Investment Stability – Central Government has invested in a number of initiatives to support business survival. Uncertainty remains around the long-term impact / effectiveness of these initiatives.

As previously mentioned, we will continue to expand our monitoring and measures as we scan for signs of trouble, stabilisation, or sparks of life.

Note: The following report has been compiled to share the Waikato region’s COVID-19 recovery progress. In all instances, sources are listed to ensure access to data can be found.

District level data can be obtained for some of the information contained in this report, please connect with us directly to learn more on this. Te Waka wishes to continue to progress conversations on the streamlining of obtaining this data with our ED community and business.

To provide feedback or find out more on the below information please contact:
Michelle Hollands michelle.hollands@tewaka.nz

Download the full report here.