Trade surplus doubles

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Tuesday 1st May 2001

New Zealand's trade surplus for March more than doubled compared with last year according to latest figures.

Statistics New Zealand has put the country's provisional value of merchandise imports for March at $2.806 billion with exports at $2.880 billion, giving a surplus of $74 million.

The figure compares to a trade surplus in March 2000 of $35 million.

Although there were no individual import items valued at $100 million or more in March, there was an aircraft valued at over $90 million.

The new figures point to subdued growth in imports over the last few months, with the quarterly trend dropping 7.8% compared with the previous year.

Statistics New Zealand says the fall was almost entirely due to decreases in imports of intermediate and capital goods.

For the year ended March 2001, the value of merchandise imports is $31.488 billion, an increase of 12.8 % on the previous year.

The value of crude oil imports is 96.6% higher than previously, mainly due to prices which averaged nearly 70% higher, although quantities also rose by 16%.

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