Digital Overtakes Wine Exports

Export sales of software and services by the information and communication technology (ICT) sector reached $2.1 billion in 2019, up 47 percent from 2017, Stats NZ said today.

“Despite flying under the radar, ICT services exports are now larger than the more celebrated Kiwi exports such as wine, which is one of our top 10 goods sold overseas,” senior analyst Nicholas Cox said.

The growth in ICT exports was driven by increased sales of published software, which reached almost $1 billion in 2019.

While exports grew significantly, sales to domestic customers dominated the ICT sector, at $7.8 billion in 2019. The overall value of domestic and export sales was $9.8 billion, an increase of 31 percent from 2017.

The ICT sector also sells services such as technical support, IT design, and hosting. Sales of IT design, consulting, and development services, and of IT technical support, were each valued at $2.5 billion in 2019. Hosting and IT infrastructure services were a growing market with $1.7 billion of sales.

These figures are sourced from the ICT supply survey 2019, which measures the commodity and type of sales from businesses associated with the ICT industries.

Overseas merchandise trade

has more information on trade in goods between New Zealand and other countries.

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