New Zealand goods exports dropped -0.9% yoy to NZD 4.4B in August. Goods imports rose 38.0% yoy to NZD 6.5B. Trade deficit came in at record NZD -2.1B, versus expectation of NZD 110m surplus.
Exports to top trading partners were mixed, up 12% to China and 5.9% to Japan, but down -9.1% to Australia, -11% to US and -12% to EU. Imports from all top trading partners were up, from China up 40%, from EU up 42%. from Australia up 19%, from USA up 15%, and from Japan up 83%.
“This is a larger deficit than normal because of higher values for imports, particularly vehicles, continuing the trend observed over the last few months. August is also the month when we typically see lower values for dairy exports,” international trade manager Alasdair Allen said.
