Biggest influx of migrants since 2004

New Zealand's population is set to swell by 20,000 for this year - the biggest jump in migrants since 2004.

The country has gained more than net 20,000 permanent and long term (PLT) migrants during 2009 after a net 2,501 PLT migrants arrived during November. This brought the total net arrivals during the calendar year to the end of November to 19,882.

Departures fell 27 per cent in November from a year ago, while arrivals fell 2.4 per cent.

The year to November 2009 had the highest permanent and long-term net migration since the year to July 2004, figures released by Statistics New Zealand show. There were 20,021 net arrivals in the 12 months to November, up from 3,569 in the year to November 2008.

The Reserve Bank and housing forecasters watch net migration figures closely for an indication of housing demand given previous influxes have helped drive up house prices through 2002, 2003 and 2004, although previous influxes were driven more by arrivals rather than a lack of departures.

Seasonally adjusted figures show net PLT migration dropped off slightly to 1,780 in November from 2,140 October. This was up from net departures of 10 (seasonally adjusted) in November 2008.

- INTEREST.CO.NZ