Lower imports trim trade deficit

New Zealand's January trade deficit - provisionally estimated at $318 million - bettered expectations for the second month running, this time with lower-than-expected imports featuring rather than December's robust export result.

Economists polled by Reuters had on median expected imports of $2.73 billion and exports of $2.2 billion for the month and a deficit of $551 million.

While December's $521 million deficit was achieved on better-than-expected export receipts - largely due to dairy exports - a drop in the value of imported large items such as armoured vehicles and aircraft was behind the surprisingly slim January import figure.

Yesterday's numbers bring the January year trade deficit to an estimated $3.93 billion - down from $4.2 billion in the year to December 2004 but up from $3.62 billion in the year to January 2004.

- NZPA