New Zealand voter economic confidence soars-poll

WELLINGTON, Aug 3 - New Zealand voters' confidence jumped last month as record low interest rates and better prices for exports raised hopes the economy will emerge from recession before the end of the year, a survey showed on Monday.

The One News-Colmar Brunton poll, taken last week, showed a net 38 percent of respondents were optimistic about the economy over the coming 12 months, compared with a net 3 percent in the previous survey taken in April.

The number of pessimists fell 17 percentage points to 22 percent, while the number of optimists rose 18 percentage points to 60 percent.

New Zealand has been in recession since early last year, prompting the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to slash interest rates to a record low 2.50 percent.

However the bank left rates unchanged at its last review on July 30 as a steady flow of positive data suggested the economy may return to growth by the end of 2009.

On Wednesday a survey showed business confidence rising for the fifth-straight month to reach a seven-year high. [ID:nWEL290690]

A part of the survey published earlier showed support for the the ruling National Party dipped slightly but it maintained a strong lead over the centre-left Labour Party, which it ousted from power in last November's election.

The latest poll put National's support at 56 percent, down 1 percentage point from last month's survey, with Labour unchanged at 31 percent.

The centre-right government led by John Key, a former foreign exchange dealer, ousted the nine-year Labour-led government of Helen Clark, by a margin of 45 percent to 34 percent. For political polls click on <NZPOLL>

The One News-Colmar Brunton polled 1,001 people with a 3.1 percent margin of error.