Imports hit $3.9 billion in October, a record for any month and testimony to the continuing resilience of the domestic economy.
Exports also crept higher, but their rising trend has flattened as the high kiwi dollar weighs on international competitiveness.
The net effect was a trade deficit of
$1.2 billion, the second largest on record, as the country pulled in $1.43 of imports for every $1 of exports.
Imports last month were 15.8 per cent higher than a year ago, and while they were boosted by the lumpy item of aircraft ($227 million), so was October last year ($206 million).
Consumer goods imports topped $1 billion and were up 16.8 per cent on a year ago. Car imports were 8.5 per cent higher at $262 million, the first annual increase since August last year.
Imports of intermediate goods - such as raw materials - at $1.4 billion were 27 per cent up on a year ago. That suggested some strength in the manufacturing sector, consistent with last week's rebound in the performance of the manufacturing index, said Deutsche Bank's Darren Gibbs.
Imports of non-transport plant and machinery last month at $533 million were 16.5 per cent up on a year ago. But for the three months ended October, plant and machinery imports were down 1.7 per cent on the same period last year, suggesting it is premature to hail an end to the hesitancy about capital expenditure evident in the national accounts for the past three quarters.
Likewise, on a three-month basis (to smooth out volatility in the monthly figures) imports of cars are still lower than a year ago.
Nonetheless the strength in overall demand for imports tied in with other indicators suggesting the domestic economy continued to show resilience, said ANZ National bank chief economist Cameron Bagrie.
"Any major improvement in the trade balance will need to come from the export side and that will require a marked depreciation of the NZ dollar."
Exports from the primary sector had been able to offset some of the recent rise in the dollar by higher commodity prices, but exports of non-primary products looked to be treading water, Bagrie said.
A notable except was aluminium, exports of which topped $1.4 billion in the past year, a 34 per cent rise on the year before.
