New Zealand will be the fastest growing economy in the Australasian region over 2021 and 2022 with its success attributed to the effective containment of the Covid-19, coupled with broader border relaxations expected in 2022, research house Fitch Solutions said.
Growth in the region continued to face “various downside risks” including low vaccination rates in the short term, while climate change-related issues and growing geopolitical tensions with China will muddy the region’s growth outlook in the longer term, it said.
“Countries that have found relative success in mitigating the economic impact of the Covid-19 outbreak, such as New Zealand will recover at a faster pace,” it said.
“We forecast New Zealand’s economy to grow by 5.5 per cent in 2021 and 4.4 per cent in 2022, following a contraction of 1.2 per cent in 2020.
