New Zealand trade balance surplus jumped in May as import plunges

July 22, 2024

New Zealand’s trade balance increased sharply in June to 699 millions of NZD from 54 million NZD in May.
This increase happens mainly thanks to plunge in imports, which declined to 5.47 billion in June from 6.94 billion in May.
Import started to slide in the end of 2022 with acceleration of NZD decline to as low as 0.55 for USD. Even though the current rate of NZDUSD is around 0.60 it is still much lower than 0.70 in the beginning of 2022.
Trading surplus is a positive sign signaling economy is on the rise. At the same time data has inflationary potential, which is negative for rate cuts.