More dairy, wood, and wine exports in April 2017 led to a goods trade surplus of $578 million, Stats NZ said today.

"In April we had the largest monthly trade surplus since 2015," international trade statistics senior manager Daria Kwon said. "This trimmed back the annual deficit, which reached an eight-year high in February."

The annual trade deficit reduced to $3.5 billion in April from $3.7 billion in March. In February 2017 it peaked at $3.8 billion, the highest trade deficit in almost eight years.

April's goods trade surplus was the largest monthly surplus since March 2015 and the largest April surplus since April 2011. Easter fell in April this year, but the holiday appeared to have little impact on exports. Both exports and imports reached new highs for an April month.