WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s merchandise exports rose to their highest ever for an April month. Exports rose 9.8 per cent to $4.75 billion in April, setting a new record for the month and marking the third-highest month ever recorded behind the $5b of exports in March 2014 and $4.9b in March 2015, according to Statistics New Zealand.
Fruit exports advanced 3.4 per cent to $444m and wine exports jumped 20 per cent to $136m. The leading contributor to the rise however, was dairy, with exports in April jumping 35 per cent to $1.11b.
The export gains led to a goods trade surplus of $578m in April, the largest monthly trade surplus since March 2015 and the largest April surplus since 2011, Stats NZ said.
The annual trade deficit reduced to $3.48b in April from $3.71b in March and $3.8b in February, which was the highest in almost eight years.
