KEY POINTS:
New Zealand posted a trade deficit of $347 million in December, bringing the total trade deficit for 2008 to $5.6 billion, according to Statistics New Zealand.
The unadjusted value of the month's merchandise exports was $3.8 billion, up 4.5 per cent, or $167m, from December 2007.
Merchandise imports were valued at $4.2 billion, up 15.2 per cent, or $552m, from December 2007.
The trade balance for the year to December was up on 2007's $5.3b but down on 2006's $6.1b.
The value of seasonally adjusted exports and imports both increased for the December 2008 quarter, up 4.4 per cent and 1.5 per cent, respectively, compared with the September 2008 quarter, said Government Statistician Geoff Bascand.
It was the third consecutive quarterly increase for exports and imports.
For seasonally adjusted exports, dairy products contributed almost two-thirds to the increase, while the largest offsetting decrease came from crude oil - down more than 40 per cent from the September 2008 quarter.
The value of the New Zealand dollar has declined 20 per cent as export and import values increased in the last three quarters.
The seasonally adjusted trade balance for the December 2008 quarter was a deficit equivalent to 10.8 per cent of exports, smaller than the deficits of 14.1 and 17.8 per cent recorded in the September 2008 and June 2008 quarters, respectively.
- NZPA
