BNZ’s performance of services index - which measures sentiment across services firms - was up 3.9 points to 44.6 in July from a rock-bottom level of 40.7 in June.

While it’s better than June it’s still a very low result - a result below 50 indicates activity is contracting for the fifth straight month.

Harbour Asset Management's Shane Solly explains how this adds to the proof that the Reserve Bank needed to cut the OCR.

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