Editorial: Sun shining on Bay economy

Andrew Austin, Editor of Hawke's Bay Today.

Slowly but surely this year there has been quite a remarkable story developing in Hawke's Bay.

If you pull all the strands together you will see that, which ever way you look at it, our region's economy is in pretty good shape.

For me the story that really hit the mark was the Infometrics' June 2016 Quarterly Economic Monitor, which showed that Napier and Hastings' economic growth outpaced Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch for the year to June. The report showed that Napier's GDP grew 4.7 per cent while Hastings District's grew 3.7 per cent.

The differences between Napier and Hastings were primarily attributed to more people moving to Napier, construction, vehicle registrations and tourism. But also our primary sector is doing particularly well.

Infometrics economist Benje Patterson said fruit, wine and forestry prices were good and, with the New Zealand dollar coming down from historic highs, there was "more money in the back pocket" for our region, which is export-focused.

On the back of this good news, we also had the QV House Price Index to the end of October showing that Napier home values have risen 18.1 per cent and Hastings 16.3 per cent over the past year. And then just yesterday we carried a story that employment in the Bay is outpacing population growth, according to the latest Statistics New Zealand labour market report.

The industry and sector success stories emerging are many and varied, but it certainly is a good space to be in.

Long may it continue.