Band 8+: The two line graphs below show New Zealand import figures from Australia and Japan in the years 1994 - 2004. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The figure illustrates goods bought to New Zealand from Australia and Japan between 1994 and 2004.

Overall, during this period, the two line graphs fluctuated dramatically, but Australia always had a higher volume of exported goods to New Zealand than Japan.

In the beginning, the import figures from Japan were about 3000 million NZ dollars, lower than 1000 million NZ dollars from Australia. Both countries then increased sharply and peaked at over 6000 million NZ dollars in 1996. After that year, Australia’s exports to New Zealand experienced a slight decrease in 1997, right before both countries hit the bottom 2 years later.

In the second half of this period, New Zealand import figures from these countries witnessed a recovery in 2000 at around 7000 million NZ dollars for Australia and 6000 million NZ dollars for Japan. From 2001 to 2004, while Japan’s exports dropped to nearly 2000 million NZ dollars in the end, Australia did have a slight fluctuation and reached 8000 million NZ dollars – four times more than Japan.