ASB rates Manawatū-Whanganui as a top performer in economic metrics

Manawatū-Whanganui scored highly for house price growth and construction activity for the last three months. Photo / Bevan Conley

Manawatū-Whanganui is one of the top-performing economic regions in the country, according to ASB Bank's regional economic ratings.

The economic scoreboard takes the latest quarterly regional statistics and ranks the economic performance of New Zealand's 16 regional council areas.

ASB updates its ratings every three months, and they are based on measures including employment, construction, retail trade, house price growth and new car sales.

Manawatū-Whanganui was the only region to equal or outperform the national averages in all of the categories.

"Such solid all-round growth has allowed the region to maintain its position, though
this steady performance was not quite enough to nudge out Canterbury for that top spot," the bank said.

Manawatū-Whanganui ranked second for new car sales and employment growth annually, while it was third for construction and fourth for house price growth.

Canterbury retains its place at the top of the scoreboard.

"There is no single factor we can point to that explains the consistent high rankings of these regions," ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley said.

"To date, we are seeing a tendency for well-diversified provincial and pastoral regions to fare better from the disruption created by the pandemic with Canterbury, Manawatū-Whanganui and Northland all falling under this category."