Official figures have revealed that New Zealand managed to record its best January trade surplus as a percentage of exports in 20 long years, with exports only marginally down as compared to the previous year, while imports managed to fall much further.

The numbers published today by Statistics New Zealand revealed a trade surplus of $296 Million for the month of January, which amounted to 8.5% of exports, and is the highest January trade surplus as a percentage of exports since 1989.

It compared to an average deficit of 20.1% of exports recorded over the previous 5 years.

Exports, on the other hand, had slipped by a mere 0.6% over the past month to $3.2 Billion, while imports declined by 11.9% to $2.9 Billion.

As has been shared by SNZ, the trend has indicated that total merchandise exports seem to have been rising over the recent months, although more data is needed to confirm the direction.