Statistics New Zealand figures released yesterday showed in the year ended February, 71,300 more migrants arrived in New Zealand than left. This equalled the previous annual record set in January.
Statistics NZ senior population statistics manager Peter Dolan said about a third of all migrant arrivals for the year came on work visas.
Just over a quarter of all work visa migrants were from the United Kingdom and France.
The next largest sources of migrants coming to New Zealand to work were from Germany, Australia, South Africa and the United States.
ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley said there were no implications in the latest migrant data for the official cash rate, which the Reserve Bank would consider tomorrow.
The ASB expected the central bank to keep the OCR on hold at 1.75% for the foreseeable future.
Although it was a record high for net migration, it was only just above the previous figure, he said.
The country gained 71,333 new residents during the past 12 months, up from 71,305 in the 12 months ending January.
There was a small dip in the February month's net gain of 6000 from 6420 in January. However, it was now six months in a row of net gains of 6000 or more.
''If that trend continues, it won't take long for net migration to move past 72,000 in a year.''
Westpac acting chief economist Michael Gordon said the increase in departures of non-New Zealand citizens had been a feature of forecasts for some time and was largely an echo of the strong inflows of non-New Zealand citizens in recent years.
In contrast, there was no sign yet of an increase in departures of New Zealanders, most likely reflecting the continued softness in the Australian jobs market.
''We expect net migration inflows to remain strong for some time as New Zealand's positive economic story, including its labour market, is making us an attractive destination.''
Statistics NZ figures showed annual arrivals had topped 129,800, another record. Departures continued to hold at about 57,000.
Mr Tuffley said departures had been creeping higher as well but at a much slower pace than arrivals.
Reviewing the composition of arrivals, and after a drop in January, China again moved back into second place behind the ever present Australia. That may have been due to the timing of Chinese New Year.
Once again, arrivals from the United Kingdom were strong and, for the past nine months, each month's arrivals had been a year-on-year improvement.
Mr Tuffley said that could be a symptom of Brexit, although South Africa had shown the same rising rising trend for longer.
For the second month in a row, the net number of Kiwi citizens in New Zealand fell as 3000 left and 2650 returned home. There were an additional 268 Australia citizens in New Zealand in February.
Student arrivals moved higher compared to January but it was most likely due to the start of the new academic year.
Taking the first two months of 2017, when most new students would arrive, and comparing the two months to 2016, there was a drop of about 9%. The slack was again taken up by work visas which increased 21% for the first two months of the year, versus the same period in 2016, he said.
