January trade deficit higher

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Thursday 14th March 2002

A revised export figure for January has lifted the trade deficit for the month by $19 million to $265 million although the country is still running a surplus on an annual basis.

Statistics New Zealand says the deficit represents 11.6% of exports for the month and that the trend in the merchandise trade balance has been declining since August 2001.

The updated value of exports for January 2002 is $2.281 billion, which is $19 million or 0.8% less than the early estimate. The value of imports for the January was $2.545 billion.

For the year ended January 2002 New Zealand was running a trade surplus of $610 million compared to a deficit of $1.443 billion for the year before.

Figures released last month showed there was a big increase in car imports in January with the category rising 50% to $340 million compared with January 2001 as car dealers stocked up ahead of the expected introduction of new safety legislation.

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