The New Zealand economy passed a symbolic milestone today, with the unemployment rate declining to 5.6% in the June quarter and in the process falling below Australia’s unemployment rate for the first time since March 2009 (see next chart).
As noted last month, the diverging fortunes are also reflected in the latest net migration data, which revealed that Kiwis are moving across the pond at the slowest pace in around 19 years, which was when the Australian economy was still recovering from the after effects of the early-1990s recession (see next chart).
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