August trade deficit revised down

1.30pm

The trade deficit for August was revised down slightly to $718 million, or 30.3 per cent of exports, from an estimated $725 million, Statistics New Zealand said today.

This compares to a $379 million deficit in July and a $299 million deficit in August last year.

It was the largest August trade deficit since 1982. Over the past 10 years the average August trade balance as a percentage of exports has been a deficit of 14.7 per cent.

The updated trade deficit for the year ended August was $3.83 billion, or 12.7 per cent of exports.

The updated value of merchandise exports for August was $2.37 billion, 2.8 per cent higher than the year-earlier, Statistics NZ said in a commentary.

The trend for the value of exports has been on the rise for the past 12 months, and is up 9.4 per cent over the period. Statistics NZ said the trend rose steeply in the first nine months since August 2003, but has slowed in recent months.

The main contributors to August's higher value of exports compared to the same time last year were: kiwifruit; frozen boneless beef cuts; iron and steel articles; unwrought aluminium; mechanical machinery and equipment; and crude oil.

These rising higher export values were partly offset by lower values for large aircraft, milk powder and butter.

The main export destinations which contributed to the higher value of exports were Korea; China, Japan and the US.

For the year ended August the updated value of merchandise exports was $30.09 billion, up 3.9 per cent compared to the year ended August 2003.

- NZPA