Australia’s trade surplus fell to a slightly softer-than-expected $5.93 billion in August, narrowing 18 per cent from July’s revised $7.25 billion due to lower commodity prices.
Exports fell by 3.0 per cent to $40.98 billion for the month on a seasonally adjusted basis, more than offsetting a slight dip in imports to $35.06 billion, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.
Market consensus had been for the trade balance to contract to a surplus of about $6 billion on the decreasing value of iron ore.
The Australian dollar climbed from 67.11 US cents to 67.14 US cents within five minutes of the data’s release.
AAP