Post RSS Feed 
Podcast Feed
NZ posts first quarterly current account surplus in almost 21 years
December 22nd, 2009New Zealand posted a seasonally adjusted current account surplus of NZ$340 million in the September quarter, its first surplus since the December quarter of 1988. The current account deficit for the year to September was NZ$5.7 billion or 3.1% of GDP. This was substantially below the NZ$15.4 billion and 8.4% of GDP seen a year ago. It was also below most market expectations.
The better result was driven mostly by lower profits by foreign owned businesses in New Zealand and at least partly by NZ$2 billion of surprise tax collections from New Zealand’s Australian-owned banks after High Court tax rulings.
Here’s what Stats NZ had to say below:
Foreign-owned companies earned lower profits in New Zealand and interest paid on overseas debt also fell, the latter reflecting the fall in market interest rates over this time. More than $2.0 billion in company tax transactions influenced the fall in income from foreign investment in New Zealand during the year ended September 2009.
However, the overall picture remains the same when these effects are removed – the investment income deficit would have fallen $3.7 billion between the years ended September 2008 and September 2009. Additionally, the current account deficit for the September 2009 year would be $7.8 billion, or 4.2 percent of GDP, excluding the tax transactions.
Net international liabilities were $173.3 billion (93.7 percent of GDP) at 30 September 2009, compared with $171.7 billion (93.3 percent of GDP) at 30 June 2009.
Tags: Current account deficit
You may also like to read:
Loading ...
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:07 pm
This ’seasonally adjusted’ current account surplus is not good news. Lower profits by foreign owned businesses indicate lower tax revenue. It also reflects increasing bank provisions against failing businesses.
And the numbers say we are still going backwards.
December 22nd, 2009 at 6:36 pm
6 of one, half doz the other PeterR.
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:47 pm
Luke.
A bit like finding you owe less tax than expected – sounds good initially but reflects deteriorating profit.
December 23rd, 2009 at 5:44 am
When we reach the tipping point of borrowing, or the banking sector simply switch the created credit tap off, imports drop, the debt fueled wheels of commerce start to stall, income taxes fall, unemployment rises. As a government only has two sources of income available, taxing and borrowing, take note of the rising govt debt at this time in the international privately owned predatory lending banking scam.
Have the banks actually yet handed over the taxes that they were found to be avoiding?