The services sector in New Zealand moved to expansion territory in September, the latest survey from BusinessNZ revealed on Monday with a Performance of Services Index score of 50.1.
That's up from 47.1 in August, and it moves back above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.
Among the individual components, sales (50.9), employment (50.6) and new orders (53.9) expanded, while stocks (47.9) and supplier deliveries (49.6) were in contraction.
"The seasonally adjusted reading of 50.7 was clearly better than August's 19-month low of 47.7. However, it was also clearly south of its long-term average of 53.5. Stabilized but hardly buoyant," said BNZ Senior Economist Craig Ebert.
