New Zealand Q4 Terms Of Trade Fall 3.0%

(RTTNews) - New Zealand's merchandise terms of trade dropped a seasonally adjusted 3.0 percent on quarter in the fourth quarter of 2018, Statistics New Zealand said on Friday.

That missed forecasts for a fall of 1.0 percent following the 0.1 percent decline in the three months prior.

Export prices for goods fell 1.7 percent and import prices rose 1.4 percent.

Export volumes for goods rose 0.8 percent and the import volumes rose 0.2 percent.

Export values for goods fell 1.3 percent and the import values rose 2.7 percent.

The services terms of trade rose 4.1 percent. Services export prices rose 2.3 percent, while import prices fell 1.7 percent.

The following were the main contributors to the export movements in the December 2018 quarter: Dairy prices fell 5.7 percent (milk powder down 6.2 percent, cheese up 0.3 percent, butter down 9.4 percent); dairy volumes fell 1.3 percent and values fell 6.8 percent; Meat prices fell 0.3 percent (lamb up 3.8 percent and beef down 4.2 percent); and meat volumes fell 3.8 percent and meat values fell 4.4 percent.

The following were the main contributors to the import movements in the December 2018 quarter: Petroleum and petroleum product prices rose 7.5 percent, following a 6.5 percent rise in the September 2018 quarter; and Petroleum and petroleum product volumes fell 15 percent, and values fell 8.6 percent.