Commenting on the latest Business and Economic Research Ltd report on Otago, which included a detailed section on Central Otago, Mr Gadd said it confirmed what many had felt - that the Central Otago economy was in recession last year.
The report said in the year ended March 2010, the Central Otago economy contracted by 1.3%.
"That was on the heels of a long sustained period of growth. We were fairly well insulated from the recession and our economy has been reasonably robust, but we seemed to get through the recession but then suffered a delayed reaction," he said.
Although the information was historic, the report provided the best data available to the council in terms of the aggregate effect on the local economy, he said.
"It shows the recession hit hardest and deepest in the urban area but there has been a flow-on effect in rural areas like Central Otago."
The construction industry in Central Otago had been the hardest hit, contracting by 10%.
Central Otago Mayor Tony Lepper said it was important to note the "stellar performance" of the district's economy for the past decade.
"There has been a significant contraction in the economy but it has come on the back of a period of sustained growth. Hopefully, this correction is behind us and we look forward to a period of stabilisation and further growth based on our more traditional contributors, in the primary sector."
The population of the district was still growing - 1.4% in the year surveyed in the report - and he hoped the district would emerge strongly from the recession.
Mr Gadd said the Central Otago economy had been in the "top two or three performers every year", compared with other local authorities throughout the country, for much of the last decade.
