KEY POINTS:
Seasonally adjusted manufacturing sales fell 2.2 per cent, or $414 million, in the December quarter, data published today by Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) shows.
The figures were pulled down by a 6.3 per cent, or $329 million, fall in meat and dairy product manufacturing.
Excluding the meat and dairy fall, the decrease would have been 0.6 per cent.
The December quarter fall followed rises of 2 per cent and 3.9 per cent in the September and June quarters respectively, SNZ said.
The second-largest fall was in machinery and equipment manufacturing, which was down 5.3 per cent ($96m), followed by a 9.7 per cent ($66m) fall in basic metal manufacturing.
An increase of 12.5 per cent ($72m) for the transport equipment manufacturing industry partly offset the decreases.
A 5.4 per cent appreciation of the New Zealand dollar between the September and December quarters had coincided with the fall in manufacturing sales, SNZ said.
With the effects of price changes removed, the value of finished goods stocks at December 31 was down 4 per cent from the same quarter of 2005 at $5.7 billion.
Removing the effect of price changes from the seasonally adjusted December quarter figures, manufacturing sales were down 2.1 per cent ($310m) from the September quarter.
Meat and dairy product manufacturing was down 3.8 per cent ($148m), and machinery and equipment manufacturing dropped 6 per cent ($82m). Transport equipment industry sales were up 15.2 per cent ($72m).
The manufacturing sales trend had eased recently, following a period of increase since the June 2005 quarter, SNZ said.
- NZPA
