How did New Zealand’s COVID-19 restrictions affect its tourism-dependent economy in 2020?

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s government implemented a "go hard and go early" strategy to protect public health. This approach included closing the country's borders to foreign visitors in mid-March 2020 and enforcing strict nationwide lockdowns.1

These measures had a severe impact on New Zealand’s tourism-dependent economy. In the June 2020 quarter, the country's GDP fell by more than 12 percent, marking the steepest quarterly decline in the recorded history of the New Zealand economy. While these policies were economically costly, they were successful in containing the spread of the virus, allowing the country to avoid the high infection and mortality rates seen elsewhere during that period.1