Exports of services lead to trade surplus

Exports of services lead to trade surplus

2 December 2015

New Zealand earned $2.8 billion more from exports than we spent on imports during the year ended September 2015, Statistics New Zealand said today. This was due to a services trade surplus of $3.3 billion, and a goods trade deficit of $0.5 billion.

In the year to September 2015, total exports of goods and services were $69.0 billion, while total imports were $66.3 billion.

New Zealand recorded a positive trade balance with India for the year ended September 2015 – a surplus of $564 million. This follows a surplus of $405 million for the September 2014 year. In the latest year, total exports to India were $1,320 million while imports were $755 million.

Our earnings from India were sixth highest for services exports ($680 million), and seventeenth highest for goods exports ($639 million), out of all countries we export to.

“India was New Zealand’s eighth largest export destination in the September 2015 year,” international statistics senior manager Jason Attewell said. "Education travel services was our largest export to India, earning New Zealand almost half a billion dollars. This is eight times more than we earned back in 2007".

Exports of education travel services measures all expenditure by international students in New Zealand, regardless of their length of stay. It includes tuition fees and living expenses.

"More students arriving from India to study in New Zealand increased our earnings from education travel services," Mr Attewell said.

The International Travel and Migration: September 2015 release reported a 41.8 percent increase in the number of students arriving from India in the September 2015 year, compared with the September 2014 year.

The Goods and Services Trade by Country release contains information on New Zealand’s trade with selected countries. See our datatables or interactive map, New Zealand's Goods and Services Trade, for more information.

For more information about these statistics:
• Visit Goods and Services Trade by Country: Year ended September 2015

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