New Zealand's annual trade balance is in surplus for the first time since July 2002.Figures released this morning from Statistics New Zealand show the monthly surplus for April rose to a surplus of $646 million, well above the consensus market forecast of
New Zealand’s annual trade balance is in surplus for the first time since July 2002.
Figures released this morning from Statistics New Zealand show the monthly surplus for April rose to a surplus of $646 million, well above the consensus market forecast of $455 million.
Last months trade balance was also revised upwards, from a surplus of $567 million to $590 million.
That takes the annual trade balance into the black - by $161 million – for the first time since July 2002.
The balance would have been even more in surplus if the Royal New Zealand Navy hadn’t bought a patrol boat last month.
The value of goods exported was $4 billion, the same as March. Main drivers of this were unsweetened whole milk powder (p $140 million) and pinus radiata logs (up $58 million). Offsetting this were falls in fruit (down $38 million) and casein and caseinates (down $15 million).
The trend in exports has been rising “strongly” since September last year, says Statistics New Zealand business statistics manager Louise Holmes-Oliver.
The rise has been 10.9% since then, following a 10-month decline. To put this in perspective though, exports are still 3.6% below their peak in November 2008.
The value of imports was $3.3 billion for the month, down slightly from last months’ $3.4 billion.
The trend though has been rising since September last year and overall import shave risen 10.7% since then.
The level though is still 17.5% lower than the peak on September 2008.
