|
Merchandise exports for the year ended June 2006 were $30.8 billion. Milk powder, butter and cheese exports contributed the largest increase (up $844 million) due to a record dairy production season. Aluminium, aluminium articles and mechanical machinery and equipment exports also increased significantly. The largest decreases were for meat and edible offal, live animals and fruit. This is attributable to farmers holding onto their stock for longer, so later in the year should see an increase in these sectors.
Exports
- Australia continues to be New Zealand’s principal export market, worth $6.1 billion. Exports to Australia rose by 4.6 percent in the year to June 2006. The United States and Japan are New Zealand’s second and third largest export markets, receiving $4.2 billion and $3.3 billion, respectively. Large increases in exports to China (9.6 percent) and the United Kingdom (8.3 percent), New Zealand’s fourth and fifth largest export markets were observed in the year ended June 2006.
- Exports to APEC economies accounted for 70 percent of New Zealand’s total exports and were worth $21.6 billion in the year ending June 2006. New Zealand’s key export destinations within APEC were Australia, the United States, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea. The European Union accounted for 15 percent of total exports in the year to June 2006, worth $4.7 billion. The most important markets within this region were the United Kingdom, Germany and Belgium.
- Dairy products were New Zealand’s largest export earner in the year to June 2006, making up 18 percent of total exports. Meat and wood were our next largest export products, accounting for 14 and 6 percent of total exports, respectively. Machinery (4 percent), aluminium (4 percent), fruit (3.8 percent), and fish (3.7 percent) were also key components of New Zealand’s export portfolio in the year ending June 2006.
Imports
- Australia remained New Zealand’s largest source of merchandise imports in the year ended June 2006, accounting for 19.5 percent of total imports. The United States accounted for 12 percent of our total imports. China recently surpassed Japan as New Zealand’s third largest source of imports. In the year ending June 2006 imports from China were $4.4 billion (11 percent of total imports).
- Imports from APEC economies were valued at $28.8 billion (73 percent) in the year ended June 2006. New Zealand’s key sources of imports from within APEC were Australia, the United States, China, Japan and Singapore. Imports from the EU were $6.8 billion (17.5 percent) in the year to June 2006. Germany, the United Kingdom and France were the most important sources of imports for New Zealand from within this region.
- Motor vehicles were New Zealand’s most valuable imported product in the year to June 2006, worth $3.1 billion. They were followed closely by imports of crude oil ($2.8 billion), refined oil ($2.3 billion) and aircraft ($1.7 billion).
Services
- In the year to March 2006, New Zealand’s service exports were worth $12.1 billion, up $66 million from the March 2005 year. New Zealand imported services to the value of $11.8 billion, up $500 million from the year ended March 2005.
- Overseas visitor arrivals numbered 2.38 million in the year to June 2006. This was 26,000 (1.1 percent) less than for the year ended June 2005. However, the year to June 2005 was characterised by an unusually high number of overseas visitors due to tourists from the United Kingdom and Ireland visiting New Zealand to support the Lion’s Rugby Team tour. The most important source of visitor arrivals in the year to June 2006 was Australia, followed by the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea.
General issues
The commodity tables show the principal markets for New Zealand’s exports (and some imports) of several product groups, including agriculture, non-agriculture, dairy, meat, fruit and vegetables, forestry, machinery and textiles, clothing and footwear. In addition, the five groupings of APEC, OECD , EU (now expanded to 25 members), ASEAN (AFTA) and the Pacific have been added to the commodity tables to give more information.
The country aggregations that make up the regions used in the text are defined at the end of this edition. These have been determined on the basis of the Ministry’s requirements and may not correspond with regional definitions appearing in other trade statistics publications. Other definitions, eg services definitions, are those used by Statistics New Zealand, based on standard IMF criteria. A summary of these also appears at the end of this edition.
Re-exports records goods brought into New Zealand and exported without a ‘substantial transformation’. The 50 percent value-added is used as a yardstick to measure ‘substantial transformation’; above that level, the goods are classified as domestic exports. Trans-shipment goods are not included. Goods that are re-exported will have previously figured in some form in the import statistics. Earlier editions of this publication have not included re-export data and have therefore understated exports and overstated the trade deficit.
Some data published in this book is provisional for the most recent period. It has been compiled for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade by Statistics New Zealand from its INFOS database, and the reader is referred to its website at www.stats.govt.nz for more and sometimes updated data. All data use New Zealand dollars unless otherwise stated.
Back to External Trade Statistics
|