NZ trade surplus misses expectations amid flood of imported petroleum

NZ trade surplus misses expectations amid flood of imported petroleum
May 24 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand’s trade surplus in April was smaller than expected as a flood of petroleum imports more than offset increasing meat exports after farmer culled their livestock during the drought earlier this year. New Zealand’s export receipts outpaced imports by $157 million in April for an annual deficit of $694 million, according to Statistics New Zealand. That’s smaller than the surplus of $475 million forecast in a Reuters survey of economists, and less than half the $337 million surplus in April last year. Imports...