New Zealand's GDP per capita paints a worse picture than the headline figure

Stats NZ data shows GDP dropped 0.1 percentage points in the final quarter of last year.

After negative growth in the previous quarter, it pushes New Zealand into a technical recession.

Per capita, there was a 0.7 percent drop in the quarter.

ANZ senior economist Miles Workman says taking immigration into account, it's almost as bad as during the Global Financial Crisis.

He says during the GFC per capita GDP growth fell 4.2 percent -- and as of yesterday after five consecutive quarterly declines, it's down 3.9 percent.