The August trade deficit widened to $1.19b from $771 million in July. That was the biggest ever deficit for the month of August. Exports were up 0.6pc from a year earlier, imports were up 9.7pc.
New Zealand's monthly trade deficit was the biggest in almost five years in August as the one-off arrival of a drilling platform skewed imports, and export growth was minimal in a month where the country's food safety was under heightened global scrutiny.
The monthly deficit widened to $1.19 billion in
August from $771 million in July and $812 million a year earlier, according to Statistics New Zealand. That was the biggest ever deficit for the month of August, and the widest monthly shortfall since September 2008. Economists polled by Reuters were predicted a monthly deficit of $743 million.
The annual deficit widened to $2.06 billion from $830 million in July, more than the $1.62 billion shortfall predicted.
Exports increased 0.6 per cent to $3.33 billion in August from a year earlier. That reflected a 45 per cent gain in international sales of logs, wood and wood articles to $385 million and a 51 per cent lift in aluminium and aluminium articles to $133 million, offset by a 1.8 per cent dip in milk powder, butter and cheese exports to $577 million, an 8.4 per cent decline in meat and edible offal to $273 million, and a 37 per cent slide in crude oil to $79 million.
Foreign sales of preparations of cereals, flour and starch dropped 28 per cent to $52 million in August. That was led by infant food preparations in a month when Chinese regulators tightened up quality control and as the country's biggest company, Fonterra, was caught up in a contamination scare that proved to be groundless.
