(Corrects the title of paragraphs 1, 2 and 6 to say 12 months until November and not “12 months until November”, corrects paragraph 6 to add finished on October 30 and not “finished October”)
By Lucy Craymer
Wellington (Reuters) – The number of people leaving New Zealand has reached record levels in 12 months until November 2024, another sign of the weakness of the country’s economy which entered a technical recession at Third trimester.
Data published Thursday by Statistics New Zealand showed that 127,800 people left the Pacific nation over the 12 months until November, an increase of 28 % compared to the period of previous 12 months. This is temporarily the greatest number of departures never recorded during an annual period, according to the Statistics Office.
Among those who left, more than 50 % were New Zealand citizens, according to data.
New Zealand, which has only 5.3 million inhabitants, has seen its economy are struggling in recent years while the central bank has increased the official rate to slow down historically high inflation.
Michael Gordon, principal economist at Westpac, said that many people come to New Zealand for work opportunities and when they dry up, people leave.
“These are work opportunities, in particular here (New Zealand) compared to Australia. The Australian economy still works quite well,” said Gordon. “There are more opportunities there now, so we see a fairly important exodus of Kiwis.”
However, the departures of people continue to be offset by incoming immigration.
Statistics New Zealand said that net migration-the number of people settled definitively in New Zealand less those leaving New Zealand-was 30,600 in the 12 months until November 2024. Net migration culminated During the 12 months completed on October 30, 2023 at 135,700.
Gordon added that net migration has now returned to historical averages and that in the long term, net migration would support the country’s economy.
“It is something that must be kept in mind that for a large part of the world, New Zealand is an attractive place where to live, but also for us (New Zealander), there are also places that seem more attractive like Australia or the United States.
