The world price of our seafood exports is well down over the last year for example. But many other prices have held up well, and that has been particularly true of major exports such as meat and dairy products (both up by more than 22 per cent in world price terms in the 12 months to April).
In aggregate, the world price of New Zealand's commodity exports rose almost 14 per cent in the year 1 to April 2001, and almost 23 per cent over the two years to April 2001. This means that an important channel through which weakness in the world economy typically affects New Zealand has so far, on this occasion, been blocked.