Rising domestic freight movements suggests the economy managed to grow during the first three months of the year, despite the effects of the Omicron outbreak.
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The ANZ Bank's monthly Truckometer index shows heavy traffic movements, which is a regarded as a real-time measure of current economic activity, rose 1.8 percent in March.
ANZ Bank chief economist Sharon Zollner said the recovery in heavy freight reflected the "normalisation" of traffic levels in Auckland after last year's lockdown.
"Even through the Covid disruptions, the heavy traffic index has been an excellent indicator for quarterly GDP (gross domestic product) growth," ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner said.
"It was very close to the mark for the recently released December quarter data. For Q1, it's suggesting a small positive outturn. Our current forecast is 0.5 percent [quarter on quarter growth]."
The Truckometer's light traffic index, which points to economic activity six months ahead, fell 1.8 percent last month, indicating that the outlook for economic growth appeared challenging.
"Covid is still causing a degree of havoc, with the slippage in light traffic consistent with Omicron spreading throughout the country," Zollner said.
She said that if it was right that consumers were going to reduce spending later this year due to the rising cost of living and higher interest rates, this may well show up in reduced driving.
ANZ was forecasting annual inflation to ramp to jump from 5.9 percent to 7.4 percent in the three months ending June as the war in Ukraine sends commodity prices skyrocketing.
The bank's economists were among a growing chorus of the pundits calling for the Reserve Bank to beging to aggressively hiking interest by 50 basis points (half a percent) to curb inflation before it becomes entrenched.
