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Retail sales in New Zealand are forecast to grow at the second-slowest rate among 12 countries in a survey of the Asia/Pacific region.
The MasterCard index puts the year-on-year retail sales growth rate for this country in the first half of 2008 at 2.4 per cent.
In Australia the forecast growth rate is 4.5 per cent, while the highest rate in the region is China's 12.8 per cent and the lowest Japan's 0.7 per cent.
The forecasts are based on a set of techniques that link a MasterCard index of consumer confidence with retail sales statistics.
The latest consumer confidence index result for this country was 56.3 points, a drop of 0.8 points, while for Australia it dipped 3.4 points to 64.9.
MasterCard Worldwide economic adviser Yuwa Hedrick-Wong said retail sales in New Zealand were being affected by a rapid slowing in the momentum of economic growth, alongside rising interest rates.
- NZPA
