Crude oil leads exports increase

An increase of $244 million in crude oil exports contributed to a 2.5 percent increase in the value of seasonally adjusted merchandise exports for the September 2007 quarter, Statistics New Zealand saidtoday.

This resulted in an exports value of $8.7 billion for the September 2007 quarter.

For the second month, crude oil was the commodity with the largest increase when compared to the samemonth of the previous year, as a result of production commencing at the Tui oil field in August.

All crude oilexports went to Australia in August but in September crude oil exports also went to Thailand and Singapore.

The seasonally adjusted value of imports fell 1.8 percent in the September 2007 quarter, following a fall of 1.5 percent in the June 2007 quarter.

This is the third time total imports have recorded a fall in twoconsecutive quarters since the June 1988 quarter, with the last occurrence in March 2003.

Imports ofconsumption goods were back up this quarter, following the first fall for a year and a half last quarter.

Large screen colour televisions led the increase in the September 2007 quarter.

The seasonally adjusted trade balance the for September 2007 quarter was a deficit of $1,324 million.

This compared with a deficit of $1,723 million for the June 2007 quarter and an average quarterly deficit of$1,556 million over the last year.

The seasonally adjusted trade balance has been in deficit since the March2002 quarter