New Zealand small businesses are out performing their Australian and Asia Pacific counterparts.

A survey commissioned by global accounting body CPA Australia shows New Zealand small businesses are growing strongly, adding new jobs and expect even better performance this year.

Spokesman Paul Drum said New Zealand businesses growth expectation of 71 percent this year is significantly better than other developed markets surveyed including Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

"New Zealand is one of the only economies where small business expectations from the prior year were actually matched by results in the 2016 survey- unlike in Australia."

But he said there's still room for improvement.

"Particularly in respect of growing businesses focusing on innovation, e-commerce, social media and training and exporting- they're all areas of improvement for New Zealand small businesses."