KEY POINTS:
New Zealand had a $196 million trade deficit in May instead of a forecast surplus of about the same size, Statistics New Zealand reported today.
The annual trade deficit to May was up to $4.8 billion from $4.6 billion in the year to April 2007.
The median forecast of economists in a Reuters poll was for a monthly surplus of $200m and an annual deficit of $4.5 billion.
The monthly trade balance equated to 5.3 per cent of exports. Over the decade, May months have recorded a deficit only three times - all of these in the past four years.
The total value of merchandise exports rose 11.2 per cent from May 2007 to May 2008, to reach $3.7 billion, while merchandise imports were up 17.3 per cent to $3.9 billion over the same period.
For both exports and imports, this is the ninth consecutive monthly rise (from the same month of the previous year).
Crude oil and other petroleum products led the increase for both exports and imports in the May 2008 month.
The next largest increase in exports came from meat and edible offal which rose $117m from May 2007, with sheep meat the main contributor to this rise.
The total exports value for meat and edible offal is the highest ever for a May month and at $528m is only just short of the highest ever recorded monthly value ($534m in March 2005).
The recent drought appears to have affected both imports and exports in May.
Import quantities of food residues, wastes and fodder were 71 per cent higher than any other month of the last decade, led by an increase in oil cake.
Export quantities of milk powder, butter and cheese were down 30 per cent compared with the previous May, although values were still up 3.9 per cent.
- NZPA
