Overseas account deficit of $349M

Press, 15 July 1985, Page 14

Overseas account deficit of $349M

PA Wellington An overseas exchange transactions current account deficit of $349 million was recorded for May compared with a deficit of $l2B million in April and $lOO million in May, 1984, said the Reserve Bank on Monday. For the year ended in May the O.E.T. current account deficit was $2889 million compared with $2640 million in the year to April. For the year ended May 1984 a deficit of $1457 million was recorded.

There was a net capital inflow of $284 million during May, 1985, comprising an official outflow of $6O million and a private inflow of $344 million. Official overseas reserves increased by $54 million in

May, 1985, and stood at $2493 million at the end of the month. The Reserve Bank said it should be noted that the O.E.T. statistics were only broadly indicative of trends in the external accounts.

This had particularly been the case since the removal of exchange control in December and the associated flexibility this gave exporters and importers in repatriating or remitting foreign exchange. A more comprehensive measure of developments in the external sector was given by the Statistics Department balarice-of-pay-ments series which measured the flows of goods and services rather than just the associated cash flows.