2019.06.0319:15:00UTC+00New Zealand Q1 Terms Of Trade Advance 1.0%

New Zealand's terms of trade climbed 1.0 percent on quarter in the first three months of 2019, Statistics New Zealand said on Tuesday.

That beat expectations for an increase of 0.5 percent following the 3.0 percent decline in the previous three months.

Export prices for goods fell 2.6 percent and import prices fell 3.5 percent, the bureau said, while export volumes for goods rose 5.0 percent and import volumes rose 1.2 percent.

Export values for goods rose 2.3 percent and import values fell 0.6 percent.

The services terms of trade rose 1.8 percent, while services export prices rose 1.2 percent and import prices fell 0.6 percent.

For the exports, dairy prices fell 7.5 percent and dairy volumes rose 19 percent and values rose 9.5 percent - while meat prices fell 0.6 percent and meat volumes fell 3.4 percent and values fell 1.4 percent.

"Total export volumes are at their highest level since the series began in 1990, reflecting higher dairy volumes in the March quarter, after adjusting for seasonal effects," business prices delivery manager Sarah Johnson said. "The previous peak in dairy export volumes was in the September 2012 quarter."

For imports, petroleum and petroleum product prices fell 20 percent, volumes rose 9.1 percent, and values fell 13 percent. Crude oil prices fell 21 percent, volumes fell 5.4 percent, and values fell 25 percent.

"Crude oil import volumes have been steady over the last five years, whereas the value of crude oil imports has been highly influenced by the price," Johnson said.