September trade deficit revised up

By NZPA

Wednesday 6th November 2002

The September trade deficit was today revised up to $354 million from the $334 million preliminary estimate, Statistics New Zealand said.

The September deficit compares with a $555 million shortfall in August and $60 million in September last year.

A car-buying binge by consumers was given as the key factor in the deficit blow-out, which was worse than economists' forecasts.

Imports in September were at $2.79 billion while exports were at $2.44 billion compared with year ago figures of $2.68 billion and $2.61 billion respectively.

New Zealanders splashed out $4.7 billion on cars and parts in the September year, up a quarter on the previous year.

The number of new cars imported in the September quarter was a quarter higher than in the June quarter and 20 percent higher than in the September quarter last year.

The annual deficit was revised to $466 million from an earlier $410 million.

There were falls in returns for most of the main export items with dairy export values remaining a key driver for the deficit.

The prices for butter, milk powder and cheese were 26.7 percent lower than the previous month, and 11.3 percent lower on the year earlier, while casein was down 38.7 percent for the month and 23.1 percent for the year.

Wool was also a notable decline in the month -- down 22.6 percent -- while meat products were 3.8 percent lower.

Going against the trend and posting higher returns were logs and wood products which showed rises of more than 13 percent for the month and 10 percent on the year earlier.

Total export returns were up 2.9 percent on August but down 6.7 percent on the same month last year, while imports were up 4.5 percent over the 12-month period.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, export returns were 5.4 percent down in the September quarter on the previous quarter, while imports were 2.7 percent higher in the quarter because of a surge in motor vehicle imports.

SNZ said that dairy returns had declined for the fifth consecutive quarter, although volumes being sold had risen for three quarters in a row.

The trade deficit was put at 14.5 percent of merchandise exports for the month, which SNZ said was close to the average for the month over the previous decade.

SNZ said during the month the New Zealand dollar on a trade weighted basis was 1.3 percent higher than the previous month, and 8.6 percent up on September 2001.

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