Record December trade deficit revised to be even worse

11.15am

New Zealand's trade deficit in December, the worst since records began in 1960, was today revised by Statistics New Zealand to show an even poorer result.

Initially, reported as a $506 million deficit late last month, it was revised today after more detailed export figures were received, to show a $519 million deficit.

That bought the annual deficit in 2003 to $3.41 million from the earlier reported figure of $3.4 billion.

The only time an annual deficit has been as bad was in 1999 when the purchase of naval frigates blew it out to $3.53 billion.

The annual shortfall compares with a $3.16 billion deficit in November and $1.30 billion in 2002.

The December deficit was the equivalent of 23 per cent of exports compared with the average trade deficit in December over the past decade of just 5.5 per cent of exports. As a percentage of exports, the deficit has not been as wide since December 1989.

Exports of $2.29 billion in December were down 4.2 per cent on December 2002 and for the year were down 8.6 per cent in value on 2002.

An increase in export values for milk powder, butter, cheese, casein and aluminium products was offset by lower values for fruit, wool and electrical machinery.

Over the December quarter, the value of milk powder, butter and cheese recorded the highest increase. The price trend for this group has been up for two quarters following eight previous quarters of declines.

Imports in December rose 0.8 per cent to $2.81 billion and these were up 5.6 per cent for the year at $31.79 billion.

- NZPA