WELLINGTON (AFP) -- New Zealand's trade deficit widened in the year to June due to rising imports and a decline in exports, official figures showed on Friday.

The deficit came in at 6.23 billion dollars (4.8 billion U.S.) in the year to June, up from 5.90 billion dollars in the year to May, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) said. The deficit was down from the June year record 6.6 billion dollars in the year to June 2006. In the month of June the trade deficit was 524 million dollars, twice as high as economists' forecasts. Economists said the figures showed rising dairy prices had not yet flowed through to the trade data and that other exporters were being hurt by the high dollar. The New Zealand dollar rose 22.1 percent against the U.S. dollar in the year to June and has hit record levels for the 22 years since the local currency was freely floated in 1985. Exports of merchandise goods for the month of June 2007 were down 7.5 percent from a year earlier at 2.75 billion dollars, SNZ said