The manufactured manufacturing crisis hits crisis point
It was less than 12 months ago that combined forces of Labour, Greens, NZ First and Mana declared manufacturing in New Zealand to be in crisis. The day before they announced this, manufacturing confidence hit a then record high and things have only got better since.
The latest news is a disaster for their manufactured crisis. Stats NZ reports:
The total manufacturing sales volume had a record rise in the December 2013 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today. This was largely due to a strong rise in meat and dairy product manufacturing.
After adjusting for seasonal effects, the volume of total manufacturing sales rose 5.7 percent, with meat and dairy product manufacturing sales up 15 percent.
Up 5.7% in one quarter – that’s incredible growth.
They make the point it isn’t just dairy and meat, even though they are the largest. Other quarterly increases are:
- Seafood +2.7%
- Fruit, oil, cereal and food +5.0%
- Wood and paper +1.6%
- Printing +8.5%
- Non-metallic minerals +5.5%
- Transport +5.9%
- Furniture +6.2%
They also report the total spending on salaries and wages in the manufacturing sector increased 4.5% in the quarter.