WELLINGTON New Zealand's economy shrank in the last quarter as the central bank’s aggressive hiking of interest rates hurt businesses and manufacturers, while bad weather hit farming and closed schools.

Official data out on Thursday showed gross domestic product (GDP) fell 0.1% in the March quarter, in line with a Reuters poll, and followed a revised 0.7% contraction in the fourth quarter. With two quarters of negative growth, the country is now in a technical recession.

Annual growth slowed to 2.2%, Statistics New Zealand data showed.

(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Sonali Paul)