Statistics New Zealand reports that the country's annual current account deficit was 7.7% of GDP for the June quarter, just short of the record high 7.8% during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis

What are we going to do when the rest of the World hits a recession, and cuts back on what they import from New Zealand, yet we have little choice but to keep importing from them?

I suppose we'll have to get out ahead of that with punitive interest rate rises, or 7.7% might seem like the Good ol' Days, looking back.

Good job we've still got farmers to supplement our borrowing.

Not to worry, we can cover 27B by selling 1000 Auckland houses a year. Problem solved.

With every free trade deal that we sign the problem only seems to get worse. We have been the only country in the world to remove all tariffs and restrictions on what we import. We have opened ourselves up to be exploited by every other country and a free for all to buy up our assets and businesses. We are just a minnow in a sea of sharks.

Maybe if we stopped selling wildly-overpriced houses to each other, and started allocating more capital and resources on producing and exporting goods and services instead, we might have a chance at a more economically sustainable and balanced economy, rather than an 18-th century-type of economy and mindset reliant on the housing Ponzi and its associated parasitic specufestors.  

Presumably much of this increase is an abberation after 2 years during which global availability of imports has been very constrained -  think cars as an example.  Stocks of just about everything became very depleted and have to be replenished ...

I'm old enough to remember when Current Account data was a key driver of NZD currency sentiment.

Can someone educate me? If we are always on the deficit, what's stopping us from becoming the next Sri Lanka, Greece or another country that is always importing more than exporting.

Relax, the PM knows what GDP is now. Must have picked it up on one of her school visits.

Let's stop buying crap from China. That'll help.

New Zealand punch’s way above its weight with innovation and food production it’s time we and government back ourselves and invest more into businesses highlighting exports we are 0.000625% of world population surely we can focus and produce something to sell to other 99.999375 %of the world. it would not take much to lift average wages and support society and help people out of poverty 

Great graph!

NZ is importing far too much relative to its GDP.  The trend is very worrying.

How can NZ pay back its ever increasing debt when imports are so out of kilter with exports?

Why did NZ shut down Marsden Point oil refinery & shut down gas exploration?

Why are we importing coal from Indonesia & not mining it ourselves?

Surely NZ needs to reduce it’s reliance on imports for its coal, oil & gas.

The Reserve Bank’s excessive printing of money & cheap FLP loans to banks as well as excessive government spending has caused an artificial feeling of wealth, resulting in massive overspending on imports.

Watch out for a continued decline in NZD as stagflation (high inflation, no GDP growth) likely to hit in 2023 and beyond as the NZ government has no credible plan to increase GDP & exports so that it can reduce its reliance on imports.

But everything’s fine right? I mean - who would have thought we needed to actually sell stuff to afford to buy stuff …. how old school is that!

Oh right, so you can't actually run an economy by having the staff notWFH, whilst dropping helicopter money and having them do nothing but sell houses to each other on credit. Who knew!

That's what happens when you import dirty coal and trash someones else environment as opposed to using your own resources.

The fact that our resources might cost more is irrelevant as the higher price provides more incentive to transition. The impact on the planet is nil, as the coal was going to be burnt any way, and if our coal was cleaner then isn't it better?

Also lets kill the dairy industry and then wonder why our current account deficit worsens.

lets remove the tax on petrol to ensure that people don't have to reduce consumption, thats really going to help our current account deficit.

Lets import more more medicines at the same time as the above and wonder why our current account worsens.

It is hard for the government to try and meet everyones needs and not reduce there standard of living, however everyones standard of living will need to fall to reduce our impact on the planet and balance our current account deficit.

I guess no one wants to spell it out, if we consume more than we earn then we are living beyond our means.