Number of immigrants arriving in NZ falling

The net migration gain fell to one-year low in February, as fewer non-New Zealand citizens arrived in the country on a permanent and long term (PLT) basis.

Figures published by Statistics New Zealand put the seasonally adjusted excess of PLT arrivals over departures at 1000 last month.

That was down from 1900 in January and the lowest figure since January 2009. The monthly seasonally adjusted series had averaged 1900 between February 2009 and January, SNZ said.

Unadjusted PLT arrivals exceeded departures by 2600 in February, down from 3600 a year ago.

The fall in net migration was mainly due to 1200 fewer arrivals of non-New Zealand citizens, with the number of arrivals on work and student permits both down by 400, SNZ said.

While departures of non-New Zealand citizens rose 400, that was offset by 600 fewer departures of New Zealand citizens.

PLT departures of New Zealand citizens to Australia fell 400 from February 2009. The net outflow of 1900 PLT migrants to Australia was the lowest for a February month since 2004, and was down from 2600 in February 2009.

Last month there was a net inflow of 1200 migrants from India, with 500 each from China and Malaysia, and 400 from Britain.

Net migration for the February year was 21,600, up from 6200 in the year ended February 2009, with the rise due to fewer departures, SNZ said.

The 63,200 PLT departures in the February year were down 19,200 or 23 percent from a year earlier. Over the same period PLT arrivals fell 3800 or 4 percent to 84,800.

The net migration gain for the February year fell from the net 22,600 gain in the year to January, which was the highest annual net gain since the May 2004 year.