NZ trade surplus wider than expected in June

Wednesday 25th July 2012

New Zealand's trade surplus was wider than expected in the month of June as the country's dairy producers sold more product overseas.

The surplus was $331 million last month, up from a revised $232 million in May, according to Statistics New Zealand. That's wider than the $134 million forecast in a Reuters survey. The annual deficit of $747 million, or 7.9 percent of exports, was smaller than the expected $870 million shortfall.

Exports rose 6.2 percent to $4.2 billion in June, with a 9.9 percent lift in foreign sales of milk powder, butter and cheese to $979 million, and a 25 percent gain in log, wood and wood article sales to $312 million.

New Zealand producers sold a seasonally adjusted 240,000 tonnes of milk powder, butter and cheese in June, up 24 percent from the same month a year earlier, while log and wood quantities were 49 percent higher than a year earlier at 1.72 million tonnes.

Dairy products, including casein and caseinates, made up 27 percent of New Zealand's annual $46.68 billion exports.

Statistics NZ said the trend for monthly exports of milk powder, butter and cheese has been declining since a record high in November 2011. Last month was excluded from its calculations because it was "unusually large".

The country's exporters increased the value of sales into China 58 percent to $602 million in June, taking annual exports to $6.12 billion. The increase in foreign sales to Asia offset a 21 percent slump in exports to the European Union, as that region contends with sovereign debt woes, eroding its ability to import goods.

The value of New Zealand's imports rose 3 percent to $3.87 billion with an increase in the value of vehicle parts and crude oil. Last month, the New Zealand dollar was 1.1 percent higher on a trade-weighted basis than in May, and 0.7 percent higher than June 2011.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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