Fuels a factor in $127m February trade deficit

Higher prices for fuels saw the estimated trade balance for February confound economists by coming in at minus $127 million, Statistics New Zealand figures out today show.

In its provisional overseas merchandise trade figures for February, Statistics NZ said imports of $2.77 billion outweighed exports of $2.64b.

The estimated $127m deficit equated to 4.8 per cent of exports.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected, on average, a trade surplus of $76m.

"This is only the second trade deficit in a February month in the last decade, with the previous one in 2003 being much smaller," Statistics NZ said in a statement.

Government statistician Brian Pink said the main contributors to the deficit, when compared against the same month in 2004, were oil, petrol and diesel imports.

"Petroleum and crude oil are usually imported at irregular intervals in large shipments, which can cause fluctuations in the value of imports from month to month," Mr Pink said in the statement.

"Lower values of imported aircraft offset these higher values of imports," he said.

For the February year, estimated exports totalled $31.08b, while estimated imports totalled $35.21b. The February year trade deficit was $4.13b.

Economists had, on average, picked a February year trade deficit of $3.84b, from exports of $30.96b and imports of $35.01b.

"The main contributors to the higher value of imports were petroleum and petroleum products, mechanical machinery and equipment, electrical machinery and equipment, and vehicles," Mr Pink said.

Australia, China, Singapore, Japan and Taiwan were the main countries recording higher values of imports in the February 2005 year, he said.

The stronger New Zealand dollar was a factor in the strong import numbers. The trade-weighted index, which measures the kiwi against a basket of other currencies, was up 1.5 per cent from January and 2.2 from February last year.

"The New Zealand dollar appreciated against all our major trading partners' currencies, with the exception of the Australian dollar," Mr Pink said.

Meanwhile, provisional figures showed nearly half the imports in the February year came from Australia, Japan, the United States and China, the latter being up 23.2 per cent on the same period in 2004.

For the February year, imports of iron and steel products were up 30.3 per cent, petroleum and products were up 29.9 per cent, and fertilisers were up 25.2 per cent.

On the down side, imports of aircraft and parts fell 36.5 per cent, sugars and sugar confectionary fell 17.7 per cent, while toys, games and sports goods fell 6.2 per cent.

- NZPA