Infrastructure investment is being held up as being paramount to keeping New Zealand's economy on the right track. 

Stats NZ will release GDP data for the third quarter just before 11am today. 

The major banks are all predicting between a 0.2% and 0.4% contraction, meaning our third technical recession in two years. 

Kiwibank Senior Economist Mary Jo Vergara told Andrew Dickens a lack of infrastructure investment has made the last few years particularly volatile.  

She says in a time of recession, building roads, hospitals and schools will help the economy. 

Vergara says cuts to the US Federal Reserve also impact our economy and exporters. 

She says our small economy is heavily reliant on the performance of the global economy. 

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