Tourists help narrow NZ’s annual current account deficit, offsetting drop in dairy exports

Tue, 15 Mar 2016

By Jonathan Underhill March 16 (BusinessDesk) - Spending by international visitors in New Zealand reached a record high in 2015, helping narrow the nation’s current account deficit and offsetting a decline in the impact of falling dairy exports. The annual current account gap was $7.7 billion, or 3.1 percent of gross domestic product, Statistics New Zealand said. That’s down from $8.1 billion, or 3.3 percent of GDP, in the 12 months ended Sept. 30 and lower than the deficit of $7.9 billion, of 3.2 percent of GDP forecast in a Reuters surv...

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