New Zealand's current account deficit widened more than expected in the third quarter on weaker prices for export commodities and fatter profits from Australian-owned banks.
The current account gap was $4.6 billion in the three months ended September 30, from a revised gap of $844 million three months earlier, according to Statistics New Zealand.
The annual deficit grew to $8.68 billion, or 4.3 percent of gross domestic product, from $7.4 billion, or 3.7 percent of GDP three months earlier.
Weaker prices for New Zealand's biggest export commodities, dairy products, meat and logs, while imports also fell, shrank the goods surplus by $513 million to $481 million in the latest quarter.
At the same time, the income deficit widened to $2.8 billion from $2.4 billion, mainly reflecting the outflow of profits to the Australian-owned banks and dividends paid to overseas investors.
Foreigners increased their earnings from New Zealand by $441 million in the latest quarter. Total earnings of foreigners were $4.2 billion while New Zealand investments overseas yielded about $1.4 billion.
Economists had expected the deficit to widen to $3.83 billion in the latest quarter for an annual deficit of $8 billion, or 3.9 per cent of gross domestic product.
The services deficit shrank to $290 million from $402 million three month earlier, helped by the influx of 80,000 visitors to the Rugby World Cup.
New Zealand's net liabilities grew to $148.2 billion in the third quarter, amounting to 72.9 percent of GDP.
The nation's foreign-currency credit rating was cut to AA from AA+ by Standard & Poor's in September, which cited the likelihood of a further deterioration in the nation's external position at a time when the economy has been weakened by the Christchurch earthquakes.
NZN