Otago edged out both Canterbury and Southland to claim the top spot in ASB’s latest regional economic scoreboard, which ranks the economic performance of the country’s 16 regions on employment, construction, retail trade and house prices.
Knocked from the top spot was Gisborne, which fell to fourth.
Otago had spent the past three quarters as the second runner-up and had consistently been in the top two for two consecutive years, the report said.
The momentum of having a larger population — the fourth highest in the country — had contributed to the region “topping the country in retail sales and employment growth”.
Business South chief executive Mike Collins said the result was fantastic for confidence in the region, at a time when businesses were trying to work through some challenging times.
The finding that Otago had topped retail sales and employment growth was surprising, Mr Collins said.
“We’re still seeing retail and hospo still working hard for business at the moment.
“We’re hoping that they have a really bumper Christmas … The sentiment we’re seeing is it’s still pretty tough out there for retail and hospitality.”
Population growth was variable across the region, as well as sentiments between sectors.
“The economists are talking about green shoots coming through now and a bit more optimism, but I think we’re not seeing that entirely across all sectors at the moment.
“Within some sectors, but certainly not all,” Mr Collins said.
Otago was one of the most geographically spread regions in the country, and some areas in particular might be excelling or even offsetting others.
The property market in Central Otago had also “really bucked the curve nationally during challenging times” and would have put the region in good stead, he said.
The report said staying at the top was hard work, and it might become increasingly hard for Otago to keep up its momentum — particularly now international visitor arrivals had started to plateau.
Mr Collins said there was still a lot of the Japanese market for tourism that was yet to return to New Zealand, so there was still potential.
Domestic tourism in the region was lower, but he was confident this would return if there was more spend within the economy to reduce interest rates.
Otago should not become complacent, he said.
“I know there’s a lot more work that we can do to create growth and better productivity across the region.
“I think there’s lots more opportunity than [what] we’ve probably capitalised on yet.”
