New Zealand is officially in its first recession for 11 years, a casualty of the Covid fallout hammering economies around the world

This country's gross domestic product has shrunk a record 12.2 per cent in the June quarter - as the Covid-19 lockdown and border closures stalled economic output.

New Zealand has recorded a second successive quarter of negative growth - the technical measure of a recession.

Economists had been forecasting a fall of between 11 per cent and 14 per cent, but forecasts had improved dramatically since the closure of boarders and initial lockdown.

New Zealand's last recession ended in the June quarter of 2009.