Northland's simmering summer is Taranaki's scorched earth: ASB regional scorecard

The long, hot summer led to tourists spending big in Northland during the first quarter. Photo/123RF.

Northland had a summer to remember, outperforming the rest of the country and climbing six places to the top of the latest ASB Regional Economic Scorecard.

The quarterly rundown from the bank measures regional performance in terms of growth across 11 measures, including employment, construction, retail trade and house prices.

ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley said strong growth across all these measures had been key to Northland's success over the three-month period.

"Northland added a healthy 4.6 per cent more jobs over the year and not surprisingly this growth then spilled over into the retail sector, where annual growth sales grew at over 5 per cent," Tuffley said.

"No doubt, the good summer weather contributed to consumers in the area slip, slop, slapping, and spending this summer and in doing so secured Northland top regional honours."

Also benefiting from the long summer was the Bay of Plenty, which shot up nine spots to third place on the scoreboard.

"Accommodation was bursting at the seams and visitors to the Bay packed their wallets and spent locally," Tuffley said of the region.

This overall strong performance for Bay of Plenty was, however, pulled down by the employment measure, with the region struggling to fill vacancies in the kiwifruit sector during peak picking season.

"That said, the kiwifruit export season is set to shatter previous records in terms of returns, and on that basis, with regional incomes strong, the Bay may be set for a prolonged spell towards the top of the Scoreboard," Tuffley said.

While it was great for tourism, the long dry summer also had some negative repercussions for some regions.

Most notably, Manawatu-Whanganui and Taranaki were dragged to the bottom of the ASB Regional Economic Scorecard by drought in the central North Island.

"The Taranaki region was one of the worst-hit by drought over summer and with this in mind, it's not that surprising consumer confidence was the weakest in the country over the quarter," Tuffley said.

And things are likely to get worse for the region in the immediate future, with the fallout from Government's decision in April to cease issuing permits for offshore oil exploration set to start filtering into the region's indicators from next quarter.