More immigrants needed to drive New Zealand economy

New Zealand needs to significantly increase its annual intake of immigrants in order to lift overall economic growth, an independent economic think-tank said Monday.

A study by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research ( NZIER) showed that an additional 40,000 people a year for 10 years would increase GDP per capita by 410 NZ dollars (340 U.S. dollars) a year.

"A more ambitious population policy is needed to increase New Zealand's population," NZIER senior economist Dr. Kirdan said in a statement.

"New Zealand's point-based immigration framework gets the mix of migrants required about right. But we need to do more to keep lifting the number of migrants that come."

Almost one in four of New Zealand's 4.5 million people were born abroad, but the current policy of 45,000 to 50,000 migrants a year was too low and very arbitrary, he said.

Immigrants provided firms with new skill sets, allowing firms to access new markets, new ideas and new products.

A deeper population base also helped firms to grow and offset high initial start-up or fixed costs.