Rising demand for imported goods has pushed New Zealand's trade balance to its widest deficit for a June year in a decade, Statistics New Zealand said.
The country's annual trade deficit widened to $4 billion in the June year, from a deficit of $3.66 billion a year earlier, Stats NZ said. Annual imports increased by $6.02 billion to $59.55 billion, while exports rose by $5.65 billion to $55.52 billion.
"The last June year surplus was in 2014, driven by high dairy export values," acting international statistics manager Dave Adair said. "Exports dipped in 2015 leading to a deficit, which has widened since due to steadily rising imports."
The latest rise in annual imports was led by $24 billion of intermediate goods, up $3 billion from the year earlier, the statistics agency said. Petroleum and products, excluding petrol, led the intermediate goods rise, up by $850 million. This was followed by parts of transport equipment, up $416 million, and parts of plant and machinery, up $413 million.
The gain in annual exports was mostly due to an increase in dairy products, the country's largest export commodity group, which rose by $1.65 billion to $14.16 billion. That was followed by a $1.01 billion gain in the value of meat and edible offal exports to $7.05 billion, and a $740 million increase in the value of forestry product exports to $4.96 billion.
