What Export From NZ Is Bigger Than Seafood & Milk Powder Combined?

The answer is the exported profits of transnational corporations.

Proving that foreign “investment” actually sucks out more money out of New Zealand than it puts in.

Here is the relevant extract from CAFCA’s newly updated Key Facts.

Transnational corporations (TNCs) make massive profits out of New Zealand. These can truly be called New Zealand's biggest invisible export. In the year to March 2015, they were $9.0 billion. Over the last decade they have averaged more than the combined exports of seafood and milk powder. In the decade 2006-2015, TNCs made $77.5 billion in profits from New Zealand, an average rate of profit after tax on their shareholdings of 12.5% (12.0% in the year to March 2015). Only 26% was reinvested (only 15% in the year to March 2015). Profits have averaged twice the increase in foreign direct investment holdings each year.

Another $7.9 billion left New Zealand in the year to March 2015 made up of investment income from debt and smaller shareholdings (portfolio investment), making a total $16.9 billion. Over the last decade this has averaged more than the combined dairy and forest product exports. More than two out of every five dollars of the $16.9 billion went to the owners of New Zealand’s banking sector: $6.9 billion. The investment income from overseas ownership of the banking sector (“Deposit taking corporations”) after taking account of its small investment income from abroad, accounted for four out of every five dollars of New Zealand’s current account deficit in the year to March 2015: $6.5 billion compared to $8.1 billion. The investment income deficit (income on New Zealand investment overseas less income on foreign investment in New Zealand) has been greater than the current account deficit for all but two years since 1989, which further increases New Zealand’s foreign liabilities.

The full Key Facts complete with sources (meticulously researched and compiled by CAFCA’s Bill Rosenberg), can be read athttp://canterbury.cyberplace.co.nz/community/CAFCA/key-facts.html

They can also be viewed there as a striking set of graphs, as both a PDF and Powerpoint.

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