WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand’s quarterly GDP is reduced by between 4% and 37% by restrictions to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) estimated on Wednesday.
Alert level 4, the most stringent restrictions which were in place in April, equalled NZ$10 billion ($6.05 billion) of lost production and reduced annual GDP by 3.2 percent, it said.
The current alert level 3 correlates to a $5 billion reduction in quarterly production, reducing annual GDP by 1.7 percent, it said.
These estimates will inform projections and scenarios going into the monetary policy decision next week, the report said.
(Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
