The trade balance for the 12 months to August continued in surplus at $2 billion, it being the biggest annual surplus since August 1992, according to Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) data released yesterday.
SNZ international statistics manager Jason Attewell said the 16% rise in combined milk powder, butter, and cheese was led by milk fat and cheese, ahead of milk powder.
''It's the first time in three years that a rise in dairy was not led by milk powder,'' he said in a statement.
ASB rural economist Nathan Penny described the result as a ''temporary trade balance bounce'' with imports temporarily weak, on particularly low volume of petroleum imports for August.
While meat export values rose, in line with expectations, Mr Penny expected dairy export prices to resume their fall, in line with the 45% decline in global dairy auction prices since February.
Goods exported rose by $227 million in August, compared with a year ago, to $3.5 billion, while the value of imported goods fell by $536 million to $4 billion, the latter skewed by last year's one-off importation of a drilling rig.
The monthly trade balance for August was in a $472 million deficit, representing 13% of exports, which was the smallest deficit for an August month since 2010, while market expectations were of $1.12 billion deficit.
Westpac senior economist Anne Boniface said although dairy exports were up in the month, softer dairy prices were likely to continue to weigh on dairy export receipts in the near future.
''The global dairy trade auctions in recent weeks have seen dairy prices continue to decline,'' she said.
