{"id":13561,"date":"2025-05-14T17:47:33","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T05:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=13561"},"modified":"2025-05-14T17:47:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T05:47:33","slug":"smallest-net-migration-gain-in-more-than-two-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=13561","title":{"rendered":"Smallest net migration gain in more than two years"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Net migration gain of 26,400 in year ended March, lowest since end of 2022<\/li>\n<li>The flow of migrants into NZ slows, the exit stays elevated<\/li>\n<li>A record 70,000 Kiwis leave in March 2025 year, two thirds headed to Australia<\/li>\n<li>Tourist numbers ease further, down 15 percent from pre-Covid<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A dwindling number of migrant arrivals and rising number of long term departures has resulted in the smallest net migration gain in more than two years.<\/p>\n<p>Stats NZ data showed a net gain of 26,400 for the year ended March, barely a quarter of the level in the previous March year, and the lowest annual gain since the end of 2022.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The fall in net migration in the March 2025 year was mainly due to fewer migrant arrivals, although departures also rose to a provisional annual record,&#8221; international migration statistics spokesperson Sarah Drake said.<\/p>\n<p>Provisionally, there were 149,600 migrant arrivals and 123,300 migrant departures in the year to March, compared with 207,100 migrant arrivals and 106,700 migrant departures in the March 2024 year.<\/p>\n<p>There was a record loss of around 70,000 New Zealanders during the year, driven by the 18-30 year age group, with two thirds of all departures headed to Australia.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Easing arrivals and strengthening departures of non-NZ citizens and sizeable net departures of NZ citizens reflect the relatively weak position of the New Zealand economy,&#8221; ASB senior economist Mark Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is a strong case for reducing monetary policy restraint. We expect a 25 basis point official cash rate cut in May, with further cuts conditional on the outlook.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Tourism soft<\/h3>\n<p>Stats NZ said visitor numbers fell in the month of March, but gained more than 1 percent in the first quarter, although were still down more than 8 percent on a year ago.<\/p>\n<p>Overseas tourist numbers were 3.3 million for the past year, about 15 percent below pre-Covid levels, with fewer arriving from Australia, Europe and North America, but a modest lift in Chinese tourists.<\/p>\n<p>Economics consultancy Infometrics said slower economic growth for major trading partners may weigh on the strength of the tourism recovery.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The recent de-escalation in the trade war between the US and China reduces the some of the downside risks to future arrival numbers from our second and third largest tourism markets,&#8221; said economist Matthew Allman.<\/p>\n<p>Several tourism industry gatherings in recent weeks have highlighted the need to improve the offering to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/national\/560383\/tourism-industry-eager-to-attract-chinese-visitors-back-to-nz.\">attract overseas visitors<\/a>, especially from China.<\/p>\n<p>VIA RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Net migration gain of 26,400 in year ended March, lowest since end of 2022 The flow of migrants into NZ slows, the exit stays elevated A record 70,000 Kiwis leave in March 2025 year, two thirds headed to Australia Tourist numbers ease further, down 15 percent from pre-Covid A dwindling number of migrant arrivals and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":13562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,208,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-lifestyle","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13563,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13561\/revisions\/13563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}