New Zealand Q4 Current Account Deficit Widens
New Zealand's current account deficit increased in the three months ended December, mainly due to a fall in earnings from both goods and services exports, figures from Statistics New Zealand showed Wednesday.
The seasonally adjusted current account deficit widened to $1.94 billion in the fourth quarter from $1.72 billion in the previous quarter. In the corresponding period last year, the deficit was $2.4 billion.
The goods and services trade surplus shrank notably to $167 million in the three-month period to December from $458 million in the preceding quarter.
The value of exported goods declined $554 million in the December 2015 quarter, led by a 13.0 percent fall in dairy prices.
"While lower petrol prices caused the value of imports to decrease, the fall in dairy prices?in the latest quarter had a bigger impact on our exports, resulting in a larger deficit," international statistics manager Stuart Jones said.
The primary and secondary income deficit narrowed to $2.1 billion in the fourth quarter from $2.2 billion in the September quarter.
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