Billion-dollar dairy exports lead to record export month

Merchandise exports in December 2007 were up a quarter from December 2006, reaching $3.7 billion, thehighest exports figure for any month, Statistics New Zealand said today.

The main contributor to thisincrease was exports of milk powder, butter and cheese which exceeded $1 billion for the first time.Combined with the contribution from casein and caseinates, dairy exports were two-thirds higher than inDecember 2006.

Record dairy export values and the recent increase in crude oil exports have resulted in large increases inexports for three consecutive months.

These increases have sent the value of exports for the Decemberquarter over $10 billion for the first time in any quarter.

The seasonally adjusted figures for the December2007 quarter show the largest quarterly increase on record for merchandise exports, at over 20 percent.Monthly imports were also up in December, but to a lesser extent.

After a deficit of $346 million inDecember 2006, the trade balance in December 2007 was a small surplus of $33 million, only the secondDecember surplus in the past decade.

It should be noted that trade figures remain provisional for threemonths and updates could change this balance.

For the December 2007 year the trade balance was adeficit of $5.3 billion, the smallest annual deficit since June 2005.