NZ immigration reaches 5-year high

This is likely to pull the country’s economy out of recession as there will be increased demand for housing along with increased consumer spending in the coming times. 

The rate of immigration in New Zealand was calculated by seeing the difference between the total departures out of the country and the total new arrivals into the country. As per data made available by Statistics New Zealand, the number of people moving out of the country were less than the new arrivals. The figures of migrant arrivals in 2009 exceeded total departures from the country by 21,253. 

The economy of New Zealand has been showing signs of recovery with increased spending by the people and high demand for houses and the GDP is expected to move higher by 3.1 percent this year, asserted Alan Bollard, Governor of Reserve Bank. However, this demand might witness a slight decline this year with citizens of the country moving to foreign lands. 

The factors that played their role increasing the net immigration of New Zealand were lesser citizens moving overseas. While the percentage of overall permanent departures declined by 22 percent last year, the data reveals just 41,600 citizens of New Zealand migrated to other countries, the lowest since the year 2003. 

Revealing the details, the report stated an increase of 8.5 percent in the number of short-term visitor arrivals from November, as per the seasonally adjusted series. 

This increase in the immigration rate is being attributed to the concerted efforts of New Zealand government in promoting the country as a tourist destination for Australians. 

Meanwhile, there has been no change in the total arrivals into the country as compared with 2008. Although, there was a decline in the number of tourists from the US, UK, China, Japan and South Korea, but this was compensated well by a rise of 11 percent in the Australians coming to New Zealand.