NZ trade deficit for April confirmed

New Zealand's trade deficit for April was confirmed at $147 million, Statistics New Zealand said today.

Today's figure was unchanged from the early estimate.

A trade surplus is usual in April month, as exports of agricultural products, which produce around one-third of the country's exports, get into full swing. The April monthly deficit represented 5.2 per cent of exports. There has not been a monthly trade surplus since May 2004.

Exports rose 0.6 per cent to $2.81 billion on March and 4.2 per cent higher from a year earlier.

The main contributors to the increased value of exports for the month were dairy products, which contributed nearly half the overall increase. Dairy export earnings were 16.7 per cent higher than in April a year ago. There were higher exports also of meat and aircraft, partly offset by falls in fruit exports, which the agency noted could be due to weather-related timing differences. Imports were confirmed at $2.95 billion.

The April year deficit was left largely unchanged at $4.324 billion from the early estimate of $4.314 billion, compared with $4.372 billion for the year through March.

The annual deficit represented 13.9 per cent of exports. Exports for the year to April 30 were up 8.3 per cent in value to $31.195 billion as a result of higher exports of meat, aircraft and mechanical machinery and equipment.

Imports were up 8.5 per cent to $35.519 billion.

The NZ dollar on a trade-weighted index basis fell 0.4 per cent on March but was 8.9 per cent higher than a year earlier.

SNZ is reverting to issuing just one monthly report on the trade data instead of the previous separate import and export releases.

- NZPA