Trade surplus lowered

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Tuesday 10th April 2001

The country's February trade surplus has been revised downwards by $34 million although still stands as one of the best figures for five years.

Updated figures show merchandise exports for February were $2.586 billion while imports were $2.207 billion.

Statistics New Zealand says the surplus was 14.6% of the value of exports for the month, and although trade surpluses have occurred in 9 of the 10 previous February months, this is the first February month since 1995 that the surplus has exceeded 10% of exports.

For the year ended February exports for the year ended February stood at $30.047 billion, up 24% from the previous year. The top three export markets, Australia, the United States of America and Japan, contributed 46.4% of the annual growth

The updated trade balance for the year ended February is a deficit of $1.123 billion compared with $3.313 billion the previous year, which included $631 million for the frigate HMNZS Te Mana.

Statistics New Zealand says both the exports and imports trends have flattened in recent months, following steady growth in both series since 1998.

Comments from our readers

No comments yet