WELLINGTON, Aug 19, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - New Zealand's population growth has come to a near halt, official statistics showed Monday, as tens of thousands of people exit a spluttering economy for pastures new.

Statistics New Zealand reported that population growth was a modest 0.1 percent in the second quarter, with the population of 5.3 million growing by a meagre 7,000.

Although New Zealand ranks highly in lists of the most desirable places in the world to live and work, in recent years the record numbers of arrivals have been matched by departures.

The kiwi, New Zealand's national bird is famously flightless, but New Zealand's people are anything but.

In the year to June, more than 130,000 people left the country, including about 45,000 to neighbouring Australia alone.

Commentators have blamed slow economic growth, high living costs and a housing crisis that has made it difficult for young New Zealanders to get on the property ladder.

In a recent research paper, Gareth Kiernan -- a forecaster with Wellington economics consultancy Infometrics -- said Australia has become particularly attractive.

The pandemic may have created a backlog of people wanting to leave for what Kiwis call their "OE" -- overseas experience.

But Kiernan believes there is something more at work.

"The lure of higher incomes and more affordable living costs in Australia has been seen as a key driver of the increasing flow of people," he wrote.

Four decades ago, then New Zealand prime minister Robert Muldoon joked that New Zealanders who left for Australia raised the IQ of both nations.

Today the the issue is no joke for policymakers. The biggest increase in departures has been seen among 25 to 44-year-olds, according to Kiernan.

New Zealand's Reserve Bank has gone from worrying about immigration stoking inflation to an emigration brain drain.

At its August meeting the central bank warned "slowing net immigration" -- along with tight monetary policy and government austerity -- could be "dampening demand"

The bank noted fewer people were arriving and more were leaving "partly in response to weakening economic and labour market conditions".

That trend, it said, was likely to intensify in the coming year, "before recovering as labour market conditions in New Zealand eventually improve".