Rising dairy prices and sustained demand from China helped offset New Zealand's trade deficit last month, the government statistics agency said Tuesday.

Of the country's top five export markets, only China and Australia rose in value in January, according to Statistics New Zealand.

Sales to China were up 12 percent year on year, or 89 million NZ dollars (65 million US dollars), and sales to Australia rose 13 percent, or 74 million NZ dollars (53.22 million US dollars).

Milk powder exports rose 7.3 percent, or 48 million NZ dollars (35.52 million US dollars) in value year on year, despite the quantity exported falling by around 19,000 tonnes, or 9.4 percent.

Milk powder, which made up 56 percent of the milk powder, butter and cheese commodity group in January 2017, more than offset lower sales for other goods, leaving overall exports up 0.3 percent, or 13 million NZ dollars (9.35 million US dollars).

Milk powder exports had risen in the last four months, after generally falling since September 2009, international statistics senior manager Daria Kwon said in a statement.

"The recent rises in the value of dairy shows exporters are getting a better price for their milk powder exports than they were at this time last year," Kwon said.

"The fall in milk powder quantity this month reflects this, with exporters getting more value for less product."

China continued to be the top destination for milk powder exports, accounting for 32 percent in January, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 7.6 percent.

Imports rose 8 percent to 4.2 billion NZ dollars (3.02 billion US dollars), the highest value for a January month, led by a large rise in crude oil.

The trade balance for January was a deficit of 285 million NZ dollars (204.88 million US dollars), or 7.3 percent of exports, which compared with an average deficit of 0.6 percent of exports for the previous five January months. 

Email: lijia@nbd.com.cn