WELLINGTON — New Zealand's annual current account deficit fell to its lowest level for two decades in the year to March due to the impact of the global economic slowdown, official figures showed Wednesday.
The current account deficit -- a measure of trade and investment flows in and out of a country -- came to 4.5 billion dollars (3.2 billion US) or 2.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) said.
This was the lowest deficit since the year to September 1989, and reflected a sharp fall in imports outstripping lower exports and foreign companies earning lower profits in New Zealand, SNZ said.
Another factor was large one-off tax payments by the four largest banks, which are Australian owned, without which the annual deficit would have amounted to 6.1 billion dollars.
The annual deficit was down from a revised 5.3 billion dollars, or 2.9 percent of GDP, in the year to December and 14.6 billion dollars, or 7.9 percent of GDP, in the year to March 2009.
In the three months to March, the current account was in surplus by 200 million dollars -- the first March quarter surplus since 2003 -- as exports started growing again.
