New Zealand trade after COVID-19 outbreak – 6 May update

Daily goods trade data between 1 February and 29 April gives an updated glance at New Zealand’s trade with the world since the COVID-19 outbreak, Stats NZ said today.

For the week ended 29 April 2020 compared with the equivalent week in 2019:

  • total exports to all countries were up 3.3 percent ($38 million), from $1.14 billion to $1.18 billion
  • total imports from all countries were down 28 percent ($331 million), from $1.17 billion to $834 million
  • exports to China were up 20 percent ($56 million), from $277 million to $333 million
  • imports from China were up 4.5 percent ($10 million), from $222 million to $232 million.

The high-level graphs released today show total export and import values, export and import values to and from China, and export values of forestry products.

In addition to the series previously published, the CSV file now includes:

  • total volume of dairy exports
  • total volume of dairy exports to China
  • total volume of dairy exports to East Asia (excluding China).

The data is provisional and should be regarded as an early, indicative estimate of intentions to trade only, subject to revision.

The data compares trade from 1 February to 29 April 2020 against previous years. This allows for an estimate to be made of what may have happened to trade, if they had followed typical patterns.

Stats NZ urges caution in making decisions based on this provisional data.

/Stats NZ Public Release. View in full here.