Nationally, gross domestic product (GDP) was up 22.4% for the past five years and up 6.7%, for the year to March.
However, Otago was down slightly on both counts, at 21.7% and 6.3% respectively for the year, according to Statistics New Zealand's (SNZ) latest regional GDP data.
Agriculture has featured strongly during the past five years for Otago and was boosted by education in 2012, but 2014's data was primarily driven by dairy cattle farming, SNZ said.
South Island regions lead the increase in regional GDP, the largest increase being Southland up 11%, Canterbury up 10.6%, Marlborough up 10.3% and Waikato up 10.1% compared with the national increase of 6.7%.
SNZ's regional economic statistics manager Gary Dunnet said Southland's 11% increase reflected the impact of higher milk prices and showed the significance of the agriculture industry to the region.
''Canterbury's increase was driven by a strong performance in agriculture, combined with the Christchurch rebuild,'' he said in a statement.
The increases in nominal value, calculated in today's dollar value and not adjusted for inflation, were a result of a strong performance in the agriculture industry, particularly dairy cattle farming and horticulture, he said.
While the Auckland and Wellington regions made the largest percentage contributions to the country's overall GDP, their increases were the smallest of all 15 regions, at 5.1% and 4.4% respectively.
