Celebrating 25 Years of Scoop
Licence needed for work use Learn More
Parliament

Gordon Campbell | Parliament TV | Parliament Today | Video | Questions Of the Day | Search

 

External accounts still weak - Labour

Labour
2000 web site"New Zealand's external accounts remain weak as imports continue to surge ahead of exports," said Labour finance spokesperson Michael Cullen today.

He was responding to the latest overseas merchandise trade data showing a deficit of $1.7 billion for the year ended July.

"The figures do show a small strengthening in the export position which is welcome. However the trend growth in imports is still running at more than twice the rate of the trend growth in exports.

"One of the biggest contributors to the export improvement is wood and wood articles. But much of this trade will be in the form of unprocessed logs which is commodity exporting at its most basic.

"New Zealand desperately needs an economic strategy to build and diversify the export sector and to encourage more value-added production. Labour in government will make that a top priority," Dr Cullen said.

© Scoop Media

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
 
 
 
Parliament Headlines | Politics Headlines | Regional Headlines

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

LATEST HEADLINES

  • PARLIAMENT
  • POLITICS
  • REGIONAL
 
 

InfoPages News Channels


 
 
 
 

Join Our Free Newsletter

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.