NZ businesses outperformed Aussies in crisis, study shows

MYOB research shows revenue fell for 35 per cent of Kiwi firms and 39 per cent for Australian firms. Photo / Supplied

Research done by accounting software provider MYOB suggests New Zealand businesses may have performed better than their Australian counterparts during the global financial crisis.

MYOB's business monitor study, which surveyed 1000 firms on both sides of the Tasman last July, revealed the proportion of businesses whose revenues fell was higher in Australia than New Zealand.

Thirty-five per cent of the New Zealand businesses surveyed reported a fall in revenue over the 12 months to July, compared with 39 per cent of Australian ones.

Tim Reed, MYOB's Sydney-based chief executive, said the study's results showed New Zealand businesses had been quite resilient to the downturn.

"I don't think it's the case that there are differences in New Zealand businesses, and that New Zealand businesses are necessarily under performing, or are less well-managed or less able [than Australian businesses]," he said.

But Reed did say New Zealand companies could benefit from more business-friendly labour laws, compulsory superannuation and a tax system that encouraged investment away from property.

He did not agree with the idea that Australia had made it through the recession unscathed.

"If you look at the number of [Australian] businesses that had revenue decreases last year versus revenue increases - twice as many saw revenue decrease as saw a revenue increase.

"To say that there has been absolutely no impact of the GFC, or to say its been a minor one ... I just don't subscribe to that."

Reed said the argument that Australia's richness in natural resources meant New Zealand's economy would always be disadvantaged was also overplayed.

"There are tonnes of economies around the world that are growing, and are booming, that aren't doing it off the back of resources."

In fact, he said there were negatives to Australia's resource wealth.

"It drives up the exchange rate, which makes it more difficult to diversify the economy away from that one sector."

Reed said tourism, education and other Australian sectors were struggling from the effects of a strong Aussie dollar.

Resources also ran in "boom and bust cycles", he said, and the fact that large iron-ore projects might soon be opened in Africa meant there was "every likelihood" that supply might increase, forcing prices in the commodity to crash.