Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

New Zealand continues to lose people overseas

Updated at 8:03 pm on 3 February 2012

New Zealand is continuing to lose people overseas.

Official figures from Statistics New Zealand show a seasonally-adjusted loss of 520 people for the month of December, compared with a revised loss of 100 the previous month.

On an annual basis, New Zealand recorded a net loss of 1855 people.

Despite Australia's cooling economy, ASB economist Jane Turner, says New Zealanders are still heading across the Tasman.

She says the Australian job market has been outperforming New Zealand's for quite some time and that has proven attractive to a lot of New Zealanders.

But Ms Turner says going forward the Australian job market is expected to slow which would see a slow down in the number of New Zealanders leaving permanently.

She says arrivals to New Zealand dipped because of a weaker economy.

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