And while economists are predicting the region’s economic outlook could get worse before it gets better, its political and business leaders remain optimistic.
ASB’s latest regional economic scoreboard for the March quarter listed Taranaki as the worst performing of the 16 regions in the country.
* Why is Taranaki the best performing region?
"Following the drought the dairy payout is going up and there will be significant oil and gas exploration over the next few years."
Holdom said there was also the expectation Taranaki would attract significant investments in its energy and engineering sectors in the coming yeas as the Government looked to invest in the ‘Just Transition’ to a low carbon economy.
Young said there was "nothing surprising" in the ASB report.
"There were strong indicators to show the local economy was healthy with construction, tourism, housing all currently showing strong demand," he said.
The ASB regional economic scoreboard took latest quarterly regional statistics and ranked the economic performance of 16 regional council areas.
Fastest growing regions gain the highest ratings, and a good performance by the national economy raises the ratings of all regions.
Ratings were updated every three months based on 11 measures, including employment, construction, retail trade, and house prices.