section_path: Impact by region or country/Asia-Pacific/New Zealand
section_name: New Zealand
paragraph_text: New Zealand
  
  In April 2020, the New Zealand Treasury projected that the country could experience an unemployment rate of 13.5 percent if the country remained in lockdown for four weeks, with a range of 17.5 and 26 percent if the lockdown was extended. Prior to the lockdown, the unemployment rate was at 4.2%. Finance Minister Grant Robertson vowed that the Government would keep the unemployment rate below 10%. In the second quarter of 2020, unemployment fell 0.2 percentage points to 4 percent; however, the under-use rate (a measure of spare capacity in the labor market) rose to a record 12 percent, up 1.6 percentage points from the previous quarter, and working hours fell by 10 percent.
  
  The GDP of New Zealand contracted 1.6 percent in the first quarter of 2020. The country officially entered a recession after a GDP contraction of 12.2% in the second quarter of 2020 which was reported by Statistics New Zealand in September.