Key points

Exports | Imports | Services | General issues

Over the 12-month period to December 2004, imports grew more rapidly than exports.  As a result, New Zealand’s merchandise trade deficit widened to $5.4 billion. This was an increase of $0.9 billion since the 2003 calendar year. Merchandise exports (excluding re-exports of $1.2 billion) were $29.5 billion, 8.1 percent higher than in the year to December 2003. This follows a decline of 8.4 percent in exports over the 2003 calendar year. The rebound in export values was driven by the strength of world commodity prices and possibly by better currency risk management on the behalf of exporters.  The high value of the New Zealand dollar, however, dampened New Zealand dollar prices for commodity exports. Over the same period, merchandise imports (CIF) were $34.9 billion, an increase of 9.8 percent from the year to December 2003. Strong growth in imports has been aided over the last year by the high New Zealand dollar and strong domestic demand.

Exports

• Australia continues to be New Zealand’s main export market, taking 20 percent of total merchandise exports ($5.9 billion) in the year to December 2004. The United States and Japan are the next largest individual markets, receiving 15 percent ($4.3 billion) and 12 percent ($3.4 billion) of exports, respectively. China is the fourth largest export market, taking 6 percent of New Zealand’s exports, up significantly from 3 percent in 1999.
• Exports to the European Union (EU) were $4.8 billion, or 16 percent of total exports in the year to December 2004. This makes the EU our second most important export destination when viewed as a single market (behind Australia).
• The value of exports to APEC¹ economies increased by 8.0 percent in the 2004 calendar year. This was driven by growth in exports to our top four trading partners (Australia, the US, Japan, and China). Just under 72 percent of New Zealand’s merchandise export trade was with APEC economies in 2004.
• Dairy products were New Zealand’s largest export earner in the 2004 calendar year, making up 17 percent of total merchandise exports. Meat (16 percent) and wood (7 percent) were other key export commodities.
• In the 2004 calendar year, non-agricultural exports accounted for 47 percent of total exports.

Imports

• The value of imports from Australia was $7.8 billion, or 22 percent of total merchandise imports in the year to December 2004. The United States and Japan were the next largest sources of imports, at 11 percent each. These three countries supplied nearly half of New Zealand’s imports. Rapid import growth from China continued in 2004, recording a 19 percent increase over the year to December 2003.
• Imports from the EU were $6.9 billion, or 20 percent of total imports in the year to December 2004. The EU was our second largest source of imports when viewed as a single market.
• New Zealand’s main imports in the 2004 calendar year were motor vehicles, mechanical machinery, mineral fuels, electrical machinery and plastics.

Services

• In the year to September 2004, New Zealand’s exports of services were valued at $11.6 billion, up 3.3 percent on the year to September 2003. Imported services were valued at $10.2 billion, up 5.8 percent. This resulted in a services trade surplus of $1.3 billion.
• Overseas visitor arrivals in the 2004 calendar year numbered 2.35 million, an increase of 11 percent from the previous year. Australia remains New Zealand’s most important source of visitors, accounting for 36 percent of total visitor numbers and increasing by 22 percent over the year to December 2004.
• Detailed information on education and tourism expenditures by country of origin are not available for this edition.

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, OECD², EU (now expanded to 25 members), ASEAN (AFTA)³ 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 IMF⁴ 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. Re-export values are not included in the export series.

Footnotes

1 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation.

2 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

3 Association of South-East Asian Nations; ASEAN Free Trade Area.

4 International Monetary Fund.