US trade tops export stakes

WELLINGTON - New Zealand's trade with the United States is a bright spot in otherwise bleak export figures released yesterday.

In the three months ended May, New Zealand exported $930 million worth of goods to the US, up 12.3 per cent on the same period last year, despite the kiwi dollar firming 2.6 per cent against the US dollar in the interval.

It was the strongest increase among New Zealand's major export destinations and compared with 5.9 per cent growth in exports to Australia, 2 per cent to the European Union and a fall of 0.4 per cent to Asia.

In the year ended May New Zealand's $3 billion export trade to the US represented a 21 per cent increase on the year before.

Overall, however, the 2.4 per cent rise in export receipts between the latest May quarter and the same period last year was dwarfed by a 6.8 per cent rise in imports over the same period.- Brian Fallow