| Terms of trade | Current account balance | Net international investment position (IIP) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | (Index) | (q/q%) | (y/y%) | ($m) | Ratio to GDP (%) | ($m) | Ratio to GDP (%) |
| Previous years: | |||||||
| Mar 2024 | 1365 | 5.1 | -3.7 | -2,389 | -5.7 | -197,417 | -47.3 |
| Mar 2025 | 1506 | 2.0 | 10.3 | -709 | -4.2 | -211,172 | -48.9 |
| Quarterly: | |||||||
| Jun 2025 | 1568 | 4.1 | 12.2 | -1,297 | -3.7 | -209,493 | -48.2 |
| Sept 2025 | 1536 | -2.0 | 7.3 | -8,357 | -3.5 | -202,948 | -46.2 |
| Dec 2025 | 1593 | 3.7 | 7.9 | -5,984 | -3.7 | -197,209 | -44.3 |
| Mar 2026 | 1561 | -2.0 | 3.7 | - | - | - | - |
Data revisions
2 March 2023
The release today includes some data revisions by Statistics New Zealand covering Mar-20 and Sep-22 quarters.
The data: coverage, periodicity and timeliness
Coverage characteristics
The balance of payments (BoP) statistics measures New Zealand's relationship with the rest of the world.
International trade in goods and services is summarised in the BoP current account, along with investment income and transfers with the rest of the world.
The international investment position (IIP) statistics shows the level of New Zealand's international assets and liabilities. This is affected by financial transactions and valuation changes.
The BoP and IIP statistics are closely related, with the BoP measuring transaction flows and the IIP measuring stock positions.
Periodicity
Quarterly
Timeliness
We release BoP and IIP statistics around three months after the end of the reference quarter.
Access by the public
Statistics release calendar
The statistics release calendar provides a long-term plan of scheduled releases. We update and release the calendar on the first working day of the month.
View the statistics release calendar
Integrity
Dissemination of terms and conditions under which official statistics are produced, including confidentiality of individual responses
We reproduced the data has been with the permission of Statistics New Zealand.
Provision of information about revisions and advance notice of major changes in methodology
We generally publish revisions when we update and release a table. New or revised data is in bold font.
Quality
Dissemination of documentation on methodology and sources used in preparing statistics
We sourced data from Statistics New Zealand.
Terms of trade
Terms of trade
The terms of trade index measures the changing volume of merchandise imports that can be funded by a fixed volume of New Zealand's merchandise exports.
It is calculated as the ratio of the total export price index to the total import price index.
The terms of trade has an index reference period of the June 2002 quarter (=1000).
Balance of payments (BOP)
Current account
The current account records the value of New Zealand's transactions with the rest of the world in goods, services, income and transfers.
The credit side of this account shows the export of goods and services, income earned and, under current transfers, the offsetting entries to resources received by residents without payment being required.
The debit side shows the import of goods and services, income paid and, under current transfers, the offsetting entries to resources supplied to foreign residents without payment being required.
The current account balance is the sum of all current account credits less all current account debits. When the sum of debits is greater than the sum of credits, we have a current account deficit.
Goods
Physical, produced items over which ownership rights can be established and whose ownership can be passed from one person to another through transactions.
Services
Products other than tangible goods. Services result from production activity that changes the conditions of the consuming units, or makes the exchange of products or financial assets possible.
Income
Earnings from providing capital (for example, profits received from directly owning a company, dividends received from owning shares, interest received from lending money) or wages/salaries earned from providing labour (compensation of employees).
Current transfers
Offsetting entries to transactions where goods and services are supplied or received without there being an exchange of equal value in return (for example, taxes or donations).
International investment position (IIP)
International investment position
The IIP measures the stock (or level) of New Zealand's financial assets and liabilities with the rest of world.
Assets
A financial claim held by an entity on another entity (for example, a New Zealand bank lending money to an overseas company would hold an asset equal to the value of the loan).
Liabilities
A financial claim owing to an entity by another entity (for example, New Zealand company borrowing from overseas would have a liability to overseas equal to the value of the loan).
Symbols and conventions for summary table
| Symbol or convention | Definition |
|---|---|
| 0 | Zero or value rounded to zero |
| - | Not applicable |
| .. | Not available |
| bold | Revised/new |
| italics | Provisional |
| Light grey background | Historical |
General notes
- Individual figures may not sum to the totals due to rounding
- Percentage changes are calculated on unrounded numbers
- You are free to copy, distribute and adapt these statistics subject to the conditions listed on our copyright page.