Chinese demand, oil price drop drive New Zealand trade surplus

Rising exports to China and falling oil prices helped New Zealand return to a slender trade surplus last month, the government statistics agency said Friday.

Exports of milk powder, butter and cheese, as well as cherries, propelled China further ahead of Australia as New Zealand's top export destination in January, according to Statistics New Zealand.

Exports to China were up 25 percent to 737 million NZ dollars (498.47 million U.S. dollars), year on year in January.

Both imports and exports rose when compared with January last year.

The total value of goods imported in January 2016 was 3.89 billion NZ dollars (2.631 billion U.S. dollars), up 7.2 percent year on year, while the total value of goods exported was 3.898 billion NZ dollars (2.636 billion U.S. dollars), up 5.9 percent.

The rise in goods imports was offset by a 7.9 percent fall in the quantity of crude oil imported.

"The fall in the value of crude oil imports is a result of New Zealand importing slightly less crude oil than in January 2015, but at a much lower price," international statistics senior manager Jason Attewell said in a statement.

"The world price of crude oil has been falling consistently since mid-2014."

New Zealand had a goods trade surplus of 8.1 million NZ dollars (5.48 billion U.S. dollars), or 0.2 percent of exports, in January and a trade deficit for the year to the end of January of 3.6 billion NZ dollars (2.43 billion U.S. dollars). Endit