Over the same period, imports were valued at 82.3 billion NZ dollars (50.21 billion U.S. dollars), down 5 percent, which resulted in an annual trade deficit of 13.6 billion NZ dollars (8.3 billion U.S. dollars) in the year ending December 2023, compared with a deficit of 14.6 billion NZ dollars (8.91 billion U.S. dollars) in the year ending December 2022, the largest annual December deficit since the record began, Stats NZ said.
Despite the adverse weather and resulting flooding causing significant damage and disruption across the North Island, monthly export values generally increased in the first five months of 2023, when compared with the same period in the previous year, and decreased for the remaining seven months of 2023, it said.
The fall in exports for the second half of 2023, when compared with 2022, was led by unit price falls for most of the main export commodities, Stats NZ international trade manager Alasdair Allen said.
"Milk powder and sheep meat were two of the most affected commodities," Allen said.
Another contributing factor was the fall in exports to China over the second half of 2023, he said, adding that China also led the fall in total imports in 2023 compared with 2022.
2023 showed a reversal of trends, with the latter part of the year seeing a general softening in both New Zealand export and import values, Allen said.
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