Australia logged a much wider-than-expected trade surplus in January

Omkar Godbole FXStreet Contributor

Australia trade balance swung back into surplus in January, shows the data released by the Australian Burea of Statistics (ABS). The nation logged a trade surplus of AUD 1055 million, which was much wider than the consensus estimate of AUD 300 million.

January Key Points (Source: ABS)

In trend terms, the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $94m in January 2018, a decrease of $55m on the surplus in December 2017.
In seasonally adjusted terms, the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $1,055m in January 2018, a turnaround of $2,201m on the deficit in December 2017.

Credits (Export of Goods and Services)

In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services credits rose $1,394m (4%) to $33,924m. Non-rural goods rose $869m (4%) and non-monetary gold rose $770m (54%). Rural goods fell $312m (8%) and net exports of goods under merchanting fell $9m (17%). Services credits rose $77m (1%).

Debits (Import of Goods and Services)

In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services debits fell $807m (2%) to $32,869m. Consumption goods fell $586m (7%), non-monetary gold fell $95m (19%), capital goods fell $90m (1%) and intermediate and other merchandise goods fell $68m (1%). Services debits rose $31m.

Author

Omkar Godbole

FXStreet Contributor

Omkar Godbole, editor and analyst, joined FXStreet after four years as a research analyst at several Indian brokerage companies.

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