New Zealand's Trade Balance lifts to $-11.99B as exports and imports both rise
New Zealand's seasonally-adjusted Trade Balance for the year ended in February rose to $-11.99 billion YoY compared to the previous period's $-12.62 billion, with both Exports and Imports rising in February from January's minor decline.
New Zealand's February Imports saw a meager rise to 6.11 billion, a slight but measurable recovery from January's dip to an 11-month low of 5.9 billion. The rebound in Imports was eclipsed by a firmer recovery in New Zealand's Exports in February, which rebounded to 5.89 billion from January's four-month low of 4.93 billion.
New Zealand's overall merchandise Trade Balance came within a hair of $-12 billion, and January's Trade Balance saw a slight downside revision to $-12.62 billion from the initial print of $-12.5 billion.
February's New Zealand Exports are 16% higher than the same time in 2023, rising $823 million YoY. Goods Imports are also 3.3% higher than at the same time last year, rising $194 million YoY.
Market reaction
The NZD/USD is trading thinly in Friday's early Asia market session, churning just beneath the 0.6050 level after the pair sagged from a failed bid to capture the 0.6100 handle amidst Thursday's broad-market US Dollar recovery.
NZD/USD 5-minute chart
About New Zealand's Trade Balance
Trade balance, released by Statistics New Zealand, is the difference between the value of country's exports and imports, over a period of year. A positive balance means that exports exceed imports, a negative ones means the opposite. Positive trade balance illustrates high competitiveness of country's economy.
Author
Joshua Gibson
FXStreet
Joshua joins the FXStreet team as an Economics and Finance double major from Vancouver Island University with twelve years' experience as an independent trader focusing on technical analysis.
