Source: Radio New Zealand
Canterbury outperformed the rest of the country in nearly every measure, including employment, retail spending, housing activity, and population growth. 123rf.com
Christchurch locals say the city is prospering and heading in the right direction, on the back of an ASB report finding Canterbury is the best place to be in the country economically.
The region topped ASB’s Regional Economic Scoreboard for the second quarter in a row.
The survey – covering the final quarter of 2025 – showed Canterbury outperformed the rest of the country in nearly every measure, including employment, retail spending, housing activity, and population growth.
Most locals RNZ spoke to in central Christchurch on Tuesday felt the city was doing well.
“I agree [with the report], it’s a great place to live. It’s an ever-growing city, it has grown so much since the earthquakes, the people and the city that it’s growing into is very cool,” a woman said.
“I think the confidence is pretty high, people seem to be quite happy, you’ve got more flights coming into the airport, tourism is doing well. Fuel’s a bit of a worry now, I think there’s a bit of uncertainty now so hopefully things keep going as they have been,” a man said.
“It doesn’t feel like the economy is that great. It feels like every week we’re spending more and more. My friends and colleagues in Christchurch we’re all talking about I dipped into my savings this week, and ‘oh did you see how much it costs to park now’, everything feels like it’s going up in price,” one woman said.
Paige Parnell, the manager of fitness clothing store LSKD in the central city, said business had been booming and they had been getting about 1000 people through the door every Saturday.
She believed Christchurch was a top tier place to be for a retailer.
“I’ve worked with other retailers, we’ve opened up down here and it just thrives, so Christchurch does really well. I think it’s the culture, everyone here is so lovely, I’m originally from Auckland so I’ve kind of travelled around a little bit but everyone here is just so friendly, everyone wants to stop and have a conversation and everyone wants to come into a store and see the vibe,” she said.
Christchurch central Bohemian Bakery manager Barsha Gurunj said strong business had meant the bakery chain had been able to expand to five locations in the city.
She said her store had great support from locals, but there was good and bad with Christchurch being so in demand for businesses.
“I think it is a tough competition, since a lot of bakeries are opening and a lot of cafes are opening as well, but since we are open for a pretty long time like five to seven years I think it is going good,” she said.
ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley said there had been a lot of development in Canterbury.
“So you’ve had the stadium, and you’ve also had quite a lot of other development happening in that region as well. So it’s all been very supportive of employment growth, retail spending, and the housing market also doing relatively well in the region,” he said.
The ASB Regional Economic Scoreboard had Otago and Waikato tied for second place, with Auckland climbing to fourth.
Wellington ranked last of the 16 regions thanks to a weak housing market, low construction and discretionary spending, despite an improving jobs market.
ASB warned the conflict in the Middle East would create fresh headwinds for both growth and inflation.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
