NZ net migration tops another decade-high in October

Friday 22nd November 2013 2 Comments

New Zealand's inbound net migration notched up another decade-high monthly gain in October as the exodus to Australia continued to slow.

The country gained a seasonally adjusted 3,000 new migrants in October, beating last month's 2,800, and matching the biggest monthly inflow of the past decade set in June 2003, according to Statistics New Zealand. The seasonally adjusted net loss of 900 migrants to Australia was a touch higher than in September, ending this year's run of smaller monthly outflows.

On an annual basis, there was a net gain of 17,500 new migrants in October, compared to a net outflow of 2,300 a year earlier. The biggest gains came from the UK, China, India, the Philippines and Germany, while fewer New Zealanders left for Australia.

Rising migration is seen as one of the contributing factors for the bubbling property market in Auckland, the country's biggest city and traditional gateway, which has created a headache for the Reserve Bank in that it might have to hike interest rates to head-off future inflation, but doesn't want to make an already strong currency look any more attractive.

Today's figures showed a 6 percent increase in short-term visitor arrivals to 195,000 in October from the same month a year earlier, with more Australians more than making up for a decline in Chinese visitors.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

Comments from our readers

On 25 November 2013 at 11:22 am Ben Scobe said:

Good news! We need a bigger labour market to pay the tax to fund the retired baby boomers!!

On 25 November 2013 at 7:00 pm Don said:

Nothing wrong with more immigrants, as long as they are spread through the country, a bounty of $15,000 per person should be applied to those who want to come to Auckland, to help defray costs to Auckland's infrastructure, housing, roads & social costs. We need to start thinking outside the square.