New Zealand manufacturing sales volumes have risen, driven by dairy and meat.
Sales volumes in the fourth quarter last year climbed 5.7 per cent, seasonally adjusted, the biggest gain since the first quarter of 1995 when petroleum and coal manufacturing was added to the series, according to Statistics New Zealand.
Excluding dairy and meat, sales rose 0.9 per cent.
Meat and dairy manufacturing volumes rose 15 per cent in the fourth quarter, the biggest increase since March 2009.
Also last quarter, New Zealand’s terms of trade rose to a 40-year high, edging closer to an all-time high reached in the June quarter of 1973, government figures last week showed.
The nation recorded a record trade surplus for January, driven by sales of dairy products to China.
‘This story was already flagged in the overseas trade figures,’ said Michael Gordon, senior economist at Westpac Banking Corp.
‘Dairy production had recovered to pre-drought levels by the September quarter, but wasn’t shipped overseas until the December quarter.’
He said the manufacturing figures were consistent with Westpac’s forecast for gross domestic product to have risen 0.9 per cent in the fourth quarter.
The value of manufacturing sales rose 6.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, or 1.1 per cent once dairy and meat were stripped out.
The value of dairy and meat sales rose 18 per cent.
Among other contributors to the rise in volumes, transport equipment and machinery and equipment manufacturing rose 5.9 per cent. Fruit, oil, cereal and other food manufacturing rose 5.0 per cent.
Source: Sky News
