In his address to the company's annual meeting in Wellington, Roderick Deane told shareholders: "While we cannot escape the realities that New Zealand currently faces, we are fortunate that Telecom's growth has been consistently better than New Zealand's general economic growth." With March quarter GDP "unfortunately negative", Deane said it was clear that external circumstances were acting as a brake on the economy. He said Telecom's ability to outperform the economy stemmed in part from the company's established growth-oriented strategies, and "partly because we also have the good fortune to operate in one of New Zealand's fastest-growing industries". Deane called the trading environment tough and he expected New Zealand's growth to be very slow.