Gisborne economy showing impact of Cyclone Gabrielle

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Cyclone Gabrielle’s impacts continue to be felt, with a new report listing Gisborne’s regional economy as the nation’s weakest.

The latest ASB Regional Economic Scoreboard report which assesses 16 regional economies every quarter, puts Gisborne in last place, two places down from the previous quarter.

“As we expected, Cyclone Gabrielle has resulted in a substantial hit to economic activity on the East Coast — alongside all of the human tragedy,” ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley said.

“Nonetheless, we expect Gizzy to climb back up the scoreboard over coming quarters, with the post-Gabrielle rebuild certain to deliver a chunk of stimulus to the region.

“After being hit hard this quarter Gisborne sits at the bottom of the table. The effects of Cyclone Gabrielle will undoubtedly have been felt across the board.”

The report showed downward movement in most indicators, with retail sales treading water, up just 1 percent on the same time last year. House prices were down 11.8 percent, new car sales down 33.6 percent, while an 89.6 percent drop in the value of construction was the largest in New Zealand.

“The big driver pushing Gisborne down was non-residential building construction,” Mr Tuffley said.

“This dropped 98 percent annually for the quarter, the biggest drop nationwide. That drove a large drop in overall building consents, down 89.6 percent over the same period.

“Confidence in the region also sits below the national level with retail sales only increasing by 1 percent, year on year, the lowest increase. We can only speculate, but it seems likely the cyclone will have had an outsized impact on those statistics.

“Still, even amid the heartache of the cyclone, Gisborne managed to show surprising resilience in some areas. For example, the region posted above average employment growth of 3.1 percent.”