KEY POINTS:
Manufacturing sales fell in the third quarter after the meat and dairy making industry recorded its biggest slide in two and a half years.
Seasonally adjusted nominal manufacturing sales declined 2.1 per cent in the three months ending September, Statistics New Zealand said today. The meat and dairy product manufacturing sector slumped 6 per cent from the previous quarter, the biggest drop since the June 2005 quarter.
The New Zealand dollar's strength against its Australian counterpart may pose "challenging" for the manufacturing industry, according to ANZ Bank.
Even though the Australian economy is robust, "the recent rise in the NZ dollar will be reducing competitiveness for the local sector," ANZ said in a research note.
"The higher NZ dollar is also likely to be forcing domestic producers to compete with cheaper imported alternatives."
The New Zealand currency has climbed over 7 per cent against the Australian dollar in the past six weeks, the fourth biggest gain of the G-10 currencies after the euro.
Excluding the meat and dairy product making industry, manufacturing sales fell for the first quarter in three, down 0.8 per cent.
