Money Mover Country Report - New Zealand

Posted on the 11th September 2017 by Dorianne Sager in Country Reports

New Zealand - Lake Tekapo

Introduction

New Zealand is a nation of firsts – the first country in the world to see the sun every morning. The first country to give women the right to vote. The first to create an entire tourist industry out of a bungee cord and a bridge.

New Zealand’s geographic isolation from the rest of the world used to be a huge downside for this island nation in the South Pacific, actually, it’s made up of over 30 islands, but the main two are the North and South. Now, isolation is one of New Zealand’s best features, drawing people from around the world who want to forget the rest of the world, if only for a few short weeks of holiday. The entire country contains every dramatic landscape you could imagine squished into 268,021 km² square feet; soaring, snow covered mountains, bubbling craters of geothermic activity, sweeping coastlines with black and white sand beaches, glacier-carved fjords, deep valleys and dense forests and is a backdrop for the world’s most famous movie trilogy, Lord of the Rings. So much so, that since 2001, the country has rebranded itself as “Middle Earth” to planeloads of jetlagged and awestruck tourists. 

With only 4 million people the country is one of the least populated in the world, and Kiwis - as they are affectionately known - are largely outnumbered by sheep, (but please refrain from cracking any sheep jokes, as the world’s largest exporter of sheep meat, they’ve heard them all).

Trade & Industry

New Zealand’s small size and isolated location have created a distinct “kiwi-can-do” mentality; ingenuity is a defining national characteristic. After untangling itself from burdensome regulations over the last thirty years, the country boasts a competitive, export driven free market economy and has negotiated a number of free trade agreements. In fact, in the 2015 Index of Economic Freedom, New Zealand ranks third in the world, just behind Hong Kong and Singapore. In reflection of New Zealand’s push to promote opportunity and prosperity, the World Bank (2015) ranked New Zealand as the easiest country to start a business, you can be up and running, paperwork signed, in less than one day. Tied with Denmark, it is also the least corrupt nation in the world. 

Agriculture and forestry are two of New Zealand’s most important industries and dairy is by far the largest sector, in 2016 it exported NZ $12.4 billion of dairy products. New Zealand’s largest company, Fonterra, is a co-operative dairy owned by approximately 10,500 farmers and is also the world’s largest dairy exporter, responsible for 30% of the world’s milk production. In 2016, meat exports were worth $5.9 billion. In 2017, a new trade deal with China to sell high valued chilled meat levels the playing field with Australia, its neighbor and largest trading partner, and opens up a new hundred million dollar market for NZ meat exports. China is the country’s second largest trade partner, followed by Japan, the US and the UK.

But it’s not all milk and sheep. Tourism, film and wine are also significant contributors to the economy - which is bolstered by the fact that it takes nearly three bottles of Sauvignon Blanc to make it through the nearly twelve hours of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, by which time, the plane tickets to Middle Earth have already been booked…

Currency Overview

The New Zealand dollar has been the official currency since 1967 when it switched from the New Zealand pound. In 1999, New Zealand introduced polymer bank notes. In 2015, the $5 note won “best bank note of the year” out of 20 countries for its depiction of famous mountaineer, Sir Edmund Hilary on one side, and a rare yellow-eyed penguin on the other. The New Zealand dollar is one of the ten most traded currencies in the world.

For naval history buffs, the New Zealand dollar is also the official currency of Pitcairn Island, a British territory in the South Pacific and home to the original descendants of the mutineers of the famous ship, The Bounty.

Currency Pairs

The New Zealand dollar is one of the world’s major currencies. The USD/NZD currency pair is the tenth most traded pair with a daily trade volume of nearly 3% of the entire FX market.

The most common New Zealand dollar minor currency pairs or major crosses are EUR/NZD, GBP/NZD, AUD/NZD, NZD/CAD and NZD/JPY.

International payments to New Zealand 

New Zealand is a low risk country and considered stable, both politically and economically. There are no known issues with making global payments to New Zealand.

Types of payments 

All payments are sent via SWIFT and although we can send all supported currencies to New Zealand, the majority of Money Mover customers send New Zealand dollars.

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