Paul Bloxham, the man who dubbed New Zealand economy a 'rockstar' says there are reasons to remain optimistic about growth prospects.

The rockstar economy has gone back to the day job, with the economist who coined the term saying things are heading back to normal.

Paul Bloxham, HSBC's chief economist for Australia and New Zealand, dubbed New Zealand a "rockstar economy" on January 6, 2014, correctly predicting it would be among the fastest growing economies among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a group of developed nations, in the following 12 months.

Since the description was first used, the term has become both a source of pride and ridicule, and a regular joke on social media and often in Parliament.

Bloxham is in New Zealand to meet HSBC clients and on Tuesday said that despite plunging confidence, New Zealand's growth was now "coming back to normal" and the economy was destined to be middle of the pack among the developed world. Most economists are forecasting economic growth of around 2 per cent in 2015.

"Growth was very strong in 2014, New Zealand was the fastest growing economy in 2014 and that's why we labelled it as a bit of a rockstar," Bloxham said.

"This year things are coming back to normal, the economy has slowed a bit [but] in large part the slowdown had been because of things outside of New Zealand's control" with the fall of international milk powder prices slashing incomes for dairy farmers, with a knock to business and consumer confidence as a result.

But Bloxham said there were industries which would help offset the reduction in farm incomes, telling clients "don't panic". The construction industry continued to grow even as the Christchurch rebuild peaked, especially in Auckland.

Meanwhile the number of international visitors reached 3 million in a calendar year for the first time recently, meaning HSBC now predicts that tourism could overtake dairy as New Zealand's largest export earner.

"What you're seeing is a shift towards tourism being a key driver of growth," Bloxham said.

The number of Chinese visitors had tripled over five years and with the New Zealand dollar falling sharply in recent months "one would expect that [growth in tourist numbers] to continue."

Over the last seven years New Zealand had outperformed similar developed nations, Bloxham said, driven by being flexible and being close to fast growing economies in Asia.

"That's the key thing that's benefited the New Zealand economy," Bloxham said, adding that even in a phase of slow growth New Zealand was outperforming some other developed nations.

"There are good reasons to be optimistic about New Zealand's prospects and the single strongest one is that New Zealand has strong ties into the Asian economies and Asia is the fastest growing region in the world."

Bloxham said he was now being asked if he regretted the 'rockstar' term, but he defended it because it was correct.

"What we were trying to capture was the fact that we thought that in 2014, New Zealand would be one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and as it turned out, it was, which was quite positive for us," Bloxham said.