wellington dec 16 reuters  new zealands gross domestic product gdp shrank 37 in the third quarter from the previous quarter the second largest decline on record as the economy was hit by an outbreak of the delta variant of covid19 official data showed on thursday the figure was not as bad as that forecast by economists polled by reuters who expected productionbased growth to shrink 45 for the quarter while the reserve bank of new zealand had pencilled in a drop of 70 annual gdp fell 03 also better than a reuters poll forecast of a 16 drop