New Zealand's economic growth exceeded expectations in the fourth quarter of 2015 despite a downturn in the country's multi-billion dollar dairy industry, official figures released Thursday show. Statistics New Zealand said the economy expanded 0.9 percent in the September-December quarter, beating analyst predictions of a 0.7 percent rise.
The data took New Zealand's increase in gross domestic product for 2015 to 2.3 percent, down from 4.1 percent in 2014.
Finance Minister Bill English said it was a "solid" performance, given the difficulties the dairy sector is facing amid a global milk supply glut.
"Despite the dairy industry doing it tough at the moment, we are in the unusual situation of solid growth, more employment and higher wages, but very low inflation," he said in a statement.
"The outlook remains for continued moderate economic growth... forecast growth averaging around three percent over calendar 2016 and 2017."
New Zealand is the world's largest dairy exporter, shipping products worth NZ$11.5 billion (US $7.8 billion) in 2015, although the figure was NZ$15.6 billion in 2014, when prices spiked due a China-led boom in demand.