Falling exports feed trade surplus decline

Dairy and forestry exports have been falling, shrinking the country's trade surplus over the past year. Photo / APN

New Zealand's annual trade surplus shrank again last month, reflecting a gradually declining trend in dairy and forestry exports while import growth stalls.

Trade deficits are normal in September and last month imports exceeded exports by $751 million as the country imported $1.22 of goods for every dollar of exports.

For the year ended September, there was a trade surplus of $724 million, down from $1.02 billion in the year to August and $1.29 billion in the year to July.

Exports of both dairy and forest products have declined in value and volume over the past six months, according to Statistics New Zealand's trend measures, which exclude seasonal fluctuations and short-term irregular movements.

"In recent months global growth concerns have seen commodity prices decline, although soft commodities held up relatively well," said the ASB's Jane Turner. "The lagged impact of recent falls in New Zealand dollar dairy prices has yet to fully show through in the export figures."

Total exports last month at $3.4 billion were up 8.6 per cent on September last year, despite an exchange rate 6.6 per cent higher in trade-weighted terms. Imports were 15.6 per cent higher at $4.2 billion, but more than half the increase was due to higher imports of crude oil, which were more than double the unusually low level a year ago.

In seasonally adjusted terms, imports were down 3.2 per cent on the June quarter, which in turn was down 1.1 per cent on March. Import trends looked to have stalled,