KEY POINTS:
The net inflow of migrants continued to recover last month from the trough it hit last December when it dwindled to zero.
The net gain of permanent and long-term migrants (those planning to stay for at least a year minus those leaving for at least a year) was 1010 in May, when adjusted for seasonal effects, Statistics New Zealand said.
That is the largest net monthly inflow since December 2006 and well up on the average of around 400 a month since then. In April it was 510.
For the year to May the net migration gain was 4931, compared with an average of just under 10,000 over the previous 10 years.
While the number of departures last month at 6880 was in line with the average over the past six months, the number of arrivals, 7890, was the highest since March 2003.
"After a year of minimal net inward migration the May figures provide the first piece of positive news for the housing sector for some time," said UBS economist Robin Clements.
It would take a few more months of stronger inflows to confirm an improvement which would help underpin demand for housing, he said.
But if the annual tally had already bottomed, it would mean migration outperformed the Reserve Bank's expectations, which are for annual migration gains to hit a low of 3000 later this year.
Arrivals include returning expatriates and departures include people who are not New Zealand citizens.
When broken down by citizenship, in the year ended March the country lost six Kiwis for every seven non-New Zealanders it gained.
The net outflow of New Zealand citizens was 34,700, including a net loss of 31,500 to Australia. The largest sources of immigrants were Britain, India, Fiji and South Africa.
Meanwhile, Statistics New Zealand has been comparing last year with previous peak gross outflows, allowing for changes in population size and age-structure.
In unadjusted terms, permanent and long-term departures for Australia last year were just 7 per cent lower than the 1979 peak, but 20 per cent lower if allowance is made for the growth in the population since then.
Compared with the 1988 peak the figures are 9 per cent and 22 per cent respectively.
Adjusting for the size of the population, departure rates of New Zealand citizens to Australia last year were very similar to rates in 2000, the previous peak in departures across the Tasman, Statistics NZ said.
"For both years the [departure] rates across most ages were lower than during the 1988 peak. However, rates in the late teens and 20s for these three years were well below the rates seen during the 1979 peak, when people aged 19 to 24 were more than twice as likely to leave for Australia on a permanent basis than they were in 2007."
