Horror Sept trade deficit revised down a tad

12.00pm

New Zealand's second largest trade deficit on record was revised down a tad when export figures were confirmed by Statistics New Zealand today.

Initially reported last month at $1.02 billion, it was revised down to $1.01 billion.

The deficit ranked just behind that of December 1999 in terms of nominal dollar value and that included a $631m naval frigate, Statistics NZ said.

SNZ said the revised value of exports for September was $2.16 billion, 8.8 per cent lower than the previous month and 1.9 per cent or $43 million lower than September last year.

The value of exports had been on a downward trend since June this year.

The department said that while a trade deficit was normal for September, the September 2004 deficit was nearly three times larger than the average of the last ten Septembers.

The main contributors to the fall in export values for the month compared with a year ago were milk powder and butter, crude oil and cassein and casseinates.

There were higher export values for kiwifruit and some steel products.

Belgium and China were the main export destinations contributing to lower values in September on the same month last year.

Today's figure brings the annual trade deficit to $4.08 billion or 13.6 per cent of exports.

- NZPA