The ANZ Truckometer light traffic index rose 0.1% month-on-month in March, while the heavy traffic index fell 1.8% following a couple of strong months.
“While both indices have a mild upward trend, in per capita terms light traffic is trending down while heavy traffic is pretty flat,” ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner says.
“The heavy traffic index is still up 2% for Q1 as a whole, suggesting low but positive GDP growth.
“However, the heavy traffic didn’t pick the fall in GDP in the second half of last year.
“The trend in light traffic remains fairly flat despite strong population growth of 3%, meaning that in per capita terms the index is trending lower.
“That is consistent with the trend in per capita GDP,” Zollner says.
