Support for exporters extended for three more years

Page updated 9 Apr 2011

This week the Government announced its decision to continue the NZ Export Credit Office’s (NZECO) existing suite of products for another three years in support of New Zealand exporters.

The decision comes after an extensive review of the function and recent performance of the NZECO, and recognises that difficulties and risks are still being encountered by New Zealand exporters as a result of the global economic downturn and its fragile recovery.

"As the recovery takes hold exporters still face difficulty getting the trade credit and financial guarantees they need to maintain existing overseas markets and establish new ones", Finance Minister Bill English says. For the full media statement see Export credit support extended for three more years (Beehive website).

The Government’s decision includes extending the NZECO’s ability to provide short-term credit insurance, which it began offering in 2009 as a temporary measure for exporters affected by the availability of private short term trade credit insurance due to the global financial crisis. Since then the NZECO has underwritten buyers from 44 countries, helping exporters mitigate their repayment risks and to access trade finance from banks. It will now continue to offer short-term trade credit insurance, until 30 June 2014, to complement the private sector provision.

The Government has also decided to provide the NZECO with more flexibility in the way it operates by:

• Maintaining its maximum $740 million facility size and removing the maximum product limits, to enable NZECO to respond to demand.
• Extending its authority to support subsidiaries of New Zealand companies domiciled overseas.
• Authorising the NZECO to share risks with other export credit agencies.

These changes are consistent with the support provided by other countries’ export credit agencies, and are intended to further enhance the support available to exporters by the NZECO, in partnership with their bank and/or trade credit insurer.

The NZECO has supported more than $1 billion of total NZ exports, since it was established, by selling a range of financial guarantees and trade credit insurance to exporters and banks with commercially sound deals that the private sector lacks the capacity or appetite for.

For further information about the range and application of the NZECO’s products see Products We Offer and Case Studies.

If you have any additional queries please contact the NZECO staff .