Merchandise Trade Deficit Confirmed

Merchandise Trade Deficit Confirmed

The provisional value of merchandise exports for November 2002 is $2,465 million, according to updated figures from Statistics New Zealand. Merchandise imports are $2,898 million, giving a merchandise trade deficit of $434 million or 17.6 percent of merchandise exports for the month.

Deficits are normal for November months and have averaged 15.1 percent of merchandise exports for the previous 10 November months.

Monthly trend values indicate that exports have generally declined since March 2002. Imports are slowly rising, resulting in a widening deficit for the latest six months.

Dairy products, ship parts and beef cuts are the main contributors to the lower export value in November 2002, when compared with November 2001.

For the year ended November 2002, the updated merchandise exports value is $31,206 million, down 4.8 percent from the November 2001 year.

Brian Pink

Government Statistician

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