Imports down, exports up in November overseas trade data

New Zealand has been exporting more and importing less. Photo / Michael Craig

New Zealand narrowed its trade deficit last month, with exports bringing in half a billion dollars more than they did a year earlier.

The latest overseas merchandise trade data, combined with an improved consumer confidence reading, emerged a day after GDP results showed the economy shrank 1% in the September quarter.

Goods exports rose $540 million (9.1%) compared to November last year, Stats NZ said today.

Goods imports fell $281m or 3.9% over the same timeframe.

The monthly trade deficit was $437m, the smallest November deficit since 2020.

Westpac senior economist Darren Gibbs said today’s overseas merchandise trade data made for some positive reading but the economy still faced serious challenges.

“Certainly at the moment, we’ve seen the benefits of an improvement in commodity prices coming through,” he told the Herald.

“If we look at the rest of the imports, capital goods imports are still running low.”

Yesterday’s GDP data showed manufacturing output fell 2.6% in the September quarter.

“It’ll be related to that but also the downturn in corporate profits,” Gibbs said of capital goods imports.

He said the overall seasonally adjusted deficit narrowed to about $350m, compared to $546m in October, $807m in September, and nearly $1 billion in August.

Gibbs said many pundits would now be looking for signs not only of an economic turnaround but a way of deciphering the speed of that improvement.

Some sectors might lag for a while, he said.

Construction shrank by 2.8% in the September quarter, and Gibbs said that sector might not recover or stabilise until the second half of 2025.

But retail was showing some positive signs, with the ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence survey showing more people saying it was a good time to buy a major household item.

Meanwhile, Westpac was picking 0.4% GDP growth for the current quarter.