New Zealand's September trade deficit hits record high

A decline in demand for meat and falling dairy prices saw New Zealand's goods trade deficit hit a monthly record in September, the government statistics agency said Thursday.

The September trade deficit hit 1.4 billion NZ dollars (1 billion U.S. dollars), or 41 percent of exports, the largest recorded monthly deficit, according to Statistics New Zealand.

Goods exports were down 5.7 percent year on year to a value of 3.5 billion NZ dollars (2.5 billion U.S. dollars) last month, said a commentary from the agency.

Meat and edible offal, New Zealand's second-largest export commodity group, had the largest fall of any commodity group, down 35 percent in value to 281 million NZ dollars (200.88 million U.S. dollars) and down 25 percent in quantity.

Dairy, the largest export commodity group, fell in value by 1.2 percent to 616 million NZ dollars (440.62 million U.S. dollars) in September, while the quantity was up 16 percent.

Of New Zealand's top export markets, only exports to China were up, growing 13 percent year on year, driven by rises in logs, wood and wood articles.

Exports to all of New Zealand's other main markets were down, led by the United States, where exports were down 19 percent.

Meat and edible offal also led the fall in exports in the quarter to the end of September, which were down 15 percent from the June quarter.

"We are seeing the effect of lower prices after the record meat season last year," international statistics senior manager Jason Attewell said in a statement.

"In the year ended September, the actual value of meat exports has fallen by around 7 percent, but quantities were little changed, down 1 percent."

The quarterly trade deficit was 1.1 billion NZ dollars (786.83 million U.S. dollars), equivalent to 9.5 percent of exports. Endit