Aotearoa New Zealand – A Few Details
Aotearoa New Zealand is a country located in the southern Pacific Ocean. The overall land of the country measures about 268,021 square kilometres (103,500 sq mls) The country is split into two major areas – the North and South Islands. There are also around 600 smaller isles. NZ is located over the Tasman Sea about 3,000km (2k miles) east of Australia and approximately 900kms (600 miles to the south of Fiji. New Zealand has a different landscape with steep mountain areas such as the Southern Alps that were created by tectonic pressures.
In other parts of the country you can find plains, volcanoes or rolling hills.
New Zealand has become a developed nation. It compares well with other developed nations when it comes to the nation’s ratings such as all levels of education and learning, economic liberty, central government transparency, and also security of constitutional rights.
New Zealand’s most heavily populated city is Auckland but the capital city is in the much smaller city Wellington.
Thanks to its innovative market economy, in 2018 the country was rated third in the Economic Freedom Index as well as 16th in the HDI. It is a higher income nation with a GDP of US$ 36,000 per head.
The economy is mainly the service industry with the second largest being agricultural activity then the manufacturing sector. Tourist activity contributes a significant 12.9 bn dollars (5.6%) to the total GDP of the nation. Until in 2016 it employed about 8% of the nation’s total labour force. Prior to the pandemic global tourist numbers were forecast to rise at a rate of 5.4% each year, nonetheless, pandemic restrictions clearly have crushed the tourist market to such an extent where it has practically been stopped.
The mining industries were historically major sectors of the economic situation with sectors such as seal hunting, kauri gum for paint, gold, flax, and also native hardwood being common at different decades.
Dairy products and also meat exports to the UK began in 1882 with the first shipment of NZ refrigerated meat on the Dunedin. The basis of this trade led solid monetary development in the country. During the 50s and 60s, a bigger market for farming items from the United States as well as Britain contributed to greater living standards for Kiwis that surpassed those of Europe and also Australia. Successive central governments post 1984 have brought about large scale macro-economic changes that rapidly transformed the country from a highly managed and protected economy to a liberalised, open market economic model.
The economy of the country relies heavily on worldwide trade, especially agricultural goods. Due to the fact that the export sector represents nearly a quarter of the country’s economy, this places the nation in a susceptible position with regards to international economic difficulties as well as worldwide product prices.
In 2014, foodstuffs comprised over 50% of the value of the total New Zealand’s exports with wood at about 7% coming in the second largest.
Major trading countries feature China with NZD 27.8 bn, Australia at NZD 26.2 bn, the European Union at NZ$ about 23 billion, the U.S.A. at NZD 17.6 billion, then Japan at NZD just over 8 billion.
The New Zealand-China FTA was agreed by New Zealand in 2008 becoming the very first such contract to be authorised by the PRC with a developed nation.
Milk items made up over $14bbillion (almost 18%) of all export trade in 2018. One company, Fonterra, controls virtually a third of the country’s international overseas trade.
Various other exports includes meat at 8.8%, wood items and also wood at 6.2%, pip fruit at more than 3.5%, machinery at 2.2%, wine at 2.1%. Following a similar trend to the dairy sector, sales of wine virtually doubled surpassing woollen sales in 2007. Through the worldwide Covid-19, the bottled and bulk wine market enjoyed significant success with even more NZ wine being imported by other nations.
Domestically the business sector consists of generally small operators, over 70% of them are sole traders with 19% having 5 or fewer people.
Innovation and the arts are growth industries. New Zealand has also earned worldwide acclaim for its digital media and also film production.
The biggest metro area in the country, Auckland, has a populace of one and a half-million out of an overall population of just over 5m. The two regions of Wellington and Christchurch each have a the same populace of less than half a million.