Stink bug impacts car imports

Imports of passenger vehicles fell 6.4 per cent or by $86 million this March quarter compared with the December quarter.

Stats NZ technical manager James Mitchell said this was due to the stink bug outbreak. 

The discovery of stink bugs on car carriers meant that the vessels were unable to enter New Zealand as scheduled. This impacted the total number of vehicle imports in the March quarter. 

The delayed imports will be included in the June quarter, says Mitchell. 

The value of imported passenger vehicles was still higher for the year to March 2018 compared with the March 2017 year. 

New Zealand imported $8.9 billion worth of passenger vehicles for 12 months to March 31 2018 compared with $8.1 billion in the March 2017 year. 

The current account balance records the value of New Zealand’s transactions with the rest of the world in goods, services, and income. It is an important indicator of the economy’s health.

Despite the fall in vehicle imports, strong imports of petroleum, machinery and equipment widened the seasonally adjusted current account deficit to a record $3.05 billion in the March quarter.  This was $1.04 billion higher than the December 2017 quarter. 

This was the largest current account deficit since the 2008 global financial crisis and was due to a drop in exports and record high imports. 

“We had a record value of imported goods this quarter, which continued a trend of rising imports,” international statistics senior manager Peter Dolan said.

New Zealand exported $13.5 billion of goods in the latest quarter, down $849 million from the record high in the December 2017 quarter. This was due to lower dairy export prices and lower meat exports.