Napier economist Sean Bevin said in inflation-adjusted terms the region had 2 per cent growth in the year to the end of March 2014, following two years of very small negative growth. In 2013 it was -0.2 per cent and in 2012 it was -0.1 per cent. Last year's growth in primary processing industries had spilled over to other sectors such as rental, hiring, and real estate services.
Mr Bevin said if the region's production base remained the same, "quiet, patchy growth" would continue.
Primary production and processing underpinned the regional economy but was vulnerable to international commodity prices, exchange rates and climate.
Hawke's Bay has little dairy activity, but Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay provincial president Will Foley said the non-milking dairy cattle sent to the region was a boon for local farmers struggling to recover capital stock numbers up after droughts.
"Getting in dairy stock to graze has been an easier option," he said.
"It has been quite profitable as dairy farmers have competed with one another for the feed available."
However, local farmers were concerned about the dry conditions, Mr Foley said.
Despite the wet weather forecast for this weekend and beyond, farmers worried it would not be enough to overcome the parched soil.
Hawke's Bay Regional Council is hosting a meeting of community and business leaders today to discuss continued dry weather.
"It's getting very grim out there," Regional Council chairman Fenton Wilson told a meeting of the council's environment and services committee yesterday.
"If we don't get rain in another week we will be looking to declare a drought in Hawke's Bay."
After the meeting Mr Wilson said today's meeting was a "precautionary" move in case rain forecast for late this week or early next week did not materialise and the region needed to seek drought status from Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy.
"We need to move relatively quickly if all the issues line up as they did last time to at least advise the minister that
preparing for a drought declaration. But we're not there yet," he said.
Mr Wilson, a Wairoa farmer, said supplying stock with water was becoming increasingly challenging in his part of the region.
Central Hawke's Bay Mayor Peter Butler, also a farmer, said his district was "getting to the desperate stage" and farmers were crying out for solid rainfall.
The Statistics NZ figures showed that Hawke's Bay's economy increased 16.6 per cent from 2009 to 2014 while the national figure was 22.4 per cent.
Hawke's Bay GDP per capita, $40,091, was the fourth lowest in New Zealand.
Business Hawke's Bay CEO, Susan White, said local government, central government and the private sector needed to work together to lift the region's performance.
A regional plan was under way involving more than 30 of the region's stakeholders "for a strongly collaborative approach".
