Aotearoa New Zealand – The Basics

Aotearoa New Zealand is a country situated in the southern Pacific. The overall space of the landmass is almost 268,021 sq km (about 100k square miles) The country is split in two primary areas – the North and South Islands. There are also about six hundred smaller islands. New Zealand lies across the Tasman Sea around 3kkm (2k miles) eastwards of Australia as well as about 900km 650miles) south of Tonga. NZ has a different landscape having steep mountain areas like the South Island alpine range that produced by structural pressures.

In other parts of the country you can find river plains, volcanoes and not so steep terrain.

Aoteraoa New Zealand has become a developed nation. It compares well among other developed countries with regard to its scores such as education, economic flexibility, central government transparency, and also protection of constitutional rights.

NZ’s highest populated urban area is Auckland however the capital is the smaller city Wellington.

Due to its advanced economy, in 2018 New Zealand was placed 3rd in the Economic Freedom Index and in the top 20 in the HDI. It has a high-income nation with a GDP of US$ 36,000 per head.

The nation’s economic activity is dominated by the service sector then next is agriculture then the manufacturing industry. Tourism contributes a considerable 12.9 billion dollars (5.6%) to the overall GDP of the nation. Up to in 2016 it supported approximately 7.5% of the nation’s total labour force. Before Covid-19 global visitor numbers were expected to rise at a rate of 5.4% annually, nonetheless, pandemic restrictions have battered the tourist industry to such an extent that it has practically been brought to a standstill.

The mining sectors were historically leading sectors of the economy with markets like seal hunting, kauri gum, gold mining, flax, as well as indigenous timber having been the focus at various periods.

Dairy and also meat exports to Great Britain was established in 1882 with the very first delivery of NZ frozen lamb on a ship called Dunedin. The basis of this sector spearheaded strong financial expansion in the nation. During the 1950s to 1960s, a bigger market for agricultural produce from the United States and also the United Kingdom contributed to higher standards of living for Kiwis that surpassed those of Europe and also Australia. Successive governments since 1984 have engaged in large scale economic restructuring that swiftly transformed the nation from a extremely regulated and also protected economy to a neo-liberal, open market economic model.

The economic situation of New Zealand relies heavily on international business, specifically agricultural produce. Due to the fact that exporting accounts for around a quarter of New Zealand’s economy, this puts the country in a risky position when it comes to global financial slowdowns and international commodity costs.

In 2014, food products composed more than 50% of the worth of the total NZ exports with timber with around 7% coming in the 2nd largest.

Major trading blocs include China at NZ$ nearly 28 billion, Australia at NZD 26.2 billion, the European Union at NZ$ 22.9 billion, the UNITED STATES at NZD approx 18 billion, then Japan with NZ$ just over 8 billion.

The New Zealand-China FTA was agreed between the two countries on the 7th April, 2008 and was the first such arrangement to be authorised by the Chinese government with another Western nation.

Milk goods represented over $14bbn (17.7%) of total export trade in 2018. One business, Fonterra, handles virtually a third of the country’s worldwide overseas trade.

Other exports features meat at 8.8%, wood items and timber at around 6%, pip fruit at more than 3.5%, machinery at 2.2%, red and white wine at 2.1%. Following a comparable trend to the milk market, wine sales nearly increased two-fold overtaking wool exports in the 2000s. During the global the pandemic, the wine industry had significant success with even more NZ white wine being imported by various other nations.

Domestically business community consists of generally small businesses, 71% of them are sole traders and less than 20% having between 1 and 5 people.

Innovation as well as the art sector are growth markets. New Zealand has also made international recognition for the digital effects as well as movie production.

The biggest metro area in the country, Auckland, has a population of 1.5million out of an overall population of just over 5m. Both Wellington and Christchurch each have a similar population of less than half a million.