New Zealand services see highest growth level since 2007

New Zealand's services sector saw its highest rate of growth in more than six years last month, according to the latest performance of services index (PSI) out Monday. The BNZ-Business New Zealand PSI for January was 58.1, up 0.5 points from December, on a scale where above 50 indicates expansion and below 50 contraction. It was the highest level of activity since November 2007 and brought the average PSI for the last six months to 56.5. "New orders are going nuts in New Zealand's services sector. This suggests people have not only come back from holidays full of confidence, but are now making things happen," BNZ senior economist Craig Ebert said in a statement. Two of the five main sub-indices were in contraction in January, breaking an eight-month cycle of all indices being in expansion. While stocks/inventories (45.6) and supplier deliveries (47.7) fell, new orders/business hit 66.1, activity/sales was 63.2 and employment was 55.2. The GDP-weighted performance of composite index, which combines the PSI and the performance of manufacturing index, for January rose 0.2 points to 57.9.