March 21, 2013 11:39am by David Farrar

1.5% quarterly GDP growth!

Gross domestic product (GDP) rose 1.5 percent in the December 2012 quarter, the strongest quarterly growth since December 2009, Statistics New Zealand said today.

“Fifteen of the 16 industries recorded increases in the last three months of 2012, reflecting the broad-based nature of growth in this quarter,” national accounts manager Rachael Milicich said. …

Economic activity for the year ended December 2012 was up 2.5 percent. This is the highest annual growth in GDP since March 2008, when the economic recession began.

It’s only one quarter, but hopefully the a start that can be sustained.

Also pleasing is private consumption is up 1.5% this quarter while government consumption is down 0.7%. Yay.

Exports went up 0.9% and imports dropped 2.0%.