Consumer confidence has taken a big knock, with sentiment "likely affected by recession headlines", according to results of the latest ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence survey for March. During the period of the latest survey, GDP results for the December quarter were released showing that the NZ economy had contracted by 0.1%, giving two consecutive quarters of negative GDP (after a 0.3% drop in September) and therefore producing what is referred to as a 'technical recession'. As a result what had been steadily improving consumer confidence took a blow. "News that the economy re-entered recession in the second half ... (full story)