Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): On Friday, Treasury released the latest New Zealand Activity Index for July. It showed a continued bounce in activity in the economy. Activity in July was about 2 percent higher than the same time last year, its highest annual increase since February 2019. This comes on the back of a 0.6 percent increase in June. Electronic card transactions and traffic movements were particularly strong: both up 5 percent and 10 percent on July last year. This data shows the continued strength of the New Zealand economy and the benefits of eliminating the community transmission so that the economy can operate as freely as possible in the context of a global pandemic. 