This morning the Finance Minister Grant Robertson was upbeat about the future, saying there were signs the recession was over and New Zealand would back bounce back quickly.

He told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking the "going hard, going early" strategy to deal with Covid-19 had not only saved lives but livelihoods. As a consequence the country was rebounding back fast.

"It represents a one-in-100-year shock to the economy and we will rebound fast."

"We are coming back strongly from this," said Robertson.

He said the country appeared to have weathered the worst of the Covid downturn, declaring: "The recession is finished."

The finance minister said he expected the next quarter's figures to show growth and significant bounce back although there was uncertainty how big the bounce back would be.

Despite falling into recession in the second quarter, the Government chose an approach that was the best for public health policy and he remained convinced it was the best path to recovery on all fronts.

Taking measures to lockdown the country and provide substantial government assistance to business had meant the Covid response was done in such a way that was quicker and better.

He said that already started to play out economically with a 2 per cent year-on-year growth in July.

And he was confident the third quarter would show considerable improvement.

"It will certainly be a very solid bounce back because we've seen some very high levels of activity.

"We're focused on the future and making sure we come out of this as strong as possible."