New Zealand earthquake-battered region on road to economic recovery

The New Zealand government Wednesday hailed the "recovery" of the earthquake-stricken Canterbury region with the release of new economic data. Canterbury, which includes New Zealand's second city of Christchurch, has been shaken by a series of earthquakes since September last year, with the worst of them killing at least 181 people in February. Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee said on Wednesday that new data showed the region's economy was improving strongly, with trade through Canterbury's ports and airport hitting a two-year high of 950 million NZ dollars (757.53 million U.S. dollars) in September. The figure was up 36 percent from September last year. "The recovery is well underway," Brownlee said in a statement. "This is the sixth monthly release of this data set and consolidates a number of positive trends over the period." The latest Ministry of Economic Development economic indicators showed steady growth being driven by trade and manufacturing. Trade value was at a two-year high of almost 1 billion NZ dollars in September, indicating more economic growth factors than just the rebuilding of Christchurch, Brownlee said. "A key pillar of growth in Canterbury will be strong and innovative businesses selling their products overseas." Job advertising remained strong and unemployment benefit numbers were down by 12 percent from their peak of 6,342 in June to 5,566 in September. "Workers are in demand in Canterbury, and fewer people on benefits reinforces that the region's economic health is improving. " The indicators also showed that the rate of net business movement away from Canterbury had slowed to 10 in September, down from 70 in April. Brownlee said residents were still migrating away from Canterbury, but the numbers of individual taxpayers leaving and international emigration were both declining. The government has been pushing the rebuilding of Christchurch as one of its main planks for national economic growth in the approach to the general election set for Nov. 26. The report also said that the immediate clean-up and reconstruction was boosting demand in certain sectors like utilities, construction, safety, health care and social assistance, but these had not fully offset reduced activity in other sectors.