Otago and Southland fared best in the January service sector index, which nationally remains in expansion mode despite having two consecutive months of decline.
The BNZ-Business New Zealand performance of services index said the Otago and Southland level of 59 points had returned to levels last seen in November, the northern region fell slightly to 52.4, the central was down 6.6 points to 54.3 while Canterbury-Westland was down 4.4 points to 51.7.
An index reading above 50 points indicates expansion and below that threshold it is contracting.
Otago Southland Employers Association chief executive John Scandrett said similar positive results were last seen as far back as November 2007 or February 2008.
"In comparison, the January 2009 survey result for Otago-Southland was 40.4.
"This pretty clearly demonstrates the then current strong contraction in the sector," he said in a statement yesterday.
The national index reading for January was 53.1 points, being 1.3 points behind the December outcome, but the January reading was the highest national January result since the index survey activity started in 2007.
Mr Scandrett said Otago and Southland saw positive movement in its sub-indices of activity-sales, stocks-inventories and employment against the other regions' results.
"However, survey comment did still reveal negativity in some sector elements, these appearing to originate in situations where holiday-maker spending in the post-Christmas period fell short of retailer expectation," he said.
