New Zealand's net migration increased in January from a year ago, marking its eighteenth successive month of new highs, figures from Statistics New Zealand showed Wednesday.
In the year to January 31, the country recorded a net migration of 65,900. It resulted from a new high of 123,000 migrant arrivals and 57,100 migrant departures.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the annual net gain of migrants totaled 6,100 in January, slightly higher than the average number of migrants per months in the last six months.
Monthly visitor arrivals to the country numbered 343,400 at the beginning of the year, up 14.0 percent from the corresponding month a year earlier.
"Visitor arrivals from China picked up towards the end of January, in the lead-up to the Chinese New Year, which occurred in early February this year," Jo-Anne Skinner, population statistics manager, said.
"The timing of this popular travel period led to a 59 percent increase in arrivals from China compared with January 2015."
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