KEY POINTS:
World prices for dairy products are now 6.6 per cent below their peak last November. But they are still 54 per cent above their level a year ago, according to ANZ's export commodity price indices, or 34 per cent higher in New Zealand dollar terms.
ANZ's overall index for a trade-weighted basket of export commodities rose 0.9 per cent last month, but only because of a 12.5 per cent jump in world aluminium prices reflecting weather-related shutdowns of smelters in China. Without that the index would have been flat, the bank said.
And because the kiwi dollar rose last month against the currencies of all New Zealand's major trading partners except Australia, in New Zealand dollar terms the index dropped 2.2 per cent last month.
Dairy prices fell 1.8 per cent, the third successive monthly decline, albeit from a record high in November. Meat price on the other hand rose - beef by 4.3 per cent, lamb by 1.2 per cent and venison by 2.8 per cent.
In world price terms meat prices are 11.5 per cent higher than a year ago, but all of that has been offset by a higher exchange rate.
