NZ posts first trade deficit for December in 4 years, as aircraft inflate imports

Thu, 29 Jan 2015

By Tina Morrison Jan. 29 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand posted its first trade deficit for a December month in four years as aircraft and mobile phones boosted imports while declining milk powder prices pulled down exports. The country turned to a $159 million trade deficit in December 2014, from a surplus of $492 million in the year-earlier month, Statistics New Zealand said in a statement. The deficit was wider than the $26 million expected in a Reuters poll of economists. Exports fell 6.9 percent to $4.42 billion in December from the...

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