Australia's Trade Surplus expands to AUD 7180m in Sept, a positive surprise – AUD unimpressed

Australia's Trade Surplus expanded to AUD 7180 million in September, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Further, the September trade data surprised markets to the upside, with a surplus of AUD 5,000 million expected while the previous figure read 5,926 million.

Meanwhile, the country’s both the exports and imports figures arrived at 3% in the reported month,

September Key Points (Source: ABS)

Balance on goods and services

In trend terms, the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $7,530m in September 2019, an increase of $169m on the surplus in August 2019.

In seasonally adjusted terms, the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $7,180m in September 2019, an increase of $563m on the surplus in August 2019.

Credits (exports of goods and services) 

In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services credits rose $1,452m (3%) to $43,215m. Non-rural goods rose $586m (2%), non-monetary gold rose $558m (26%) and rural goods rose $240m (6%). Net exports of goods under merchanting remained steady at $15m. Services credits rose $69m (1%).

Debits (imports of goods and services)

In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services debits rose $889m (3%) to $36,034m. Capital goods rose $702m (12%), intermediate and other merchandise goods rose $474m (4%) and consumption goods rose $64m (1%). Non-monetary gold fell $373m (34%). Services debits rose $22m.

The Aussie dollar failed to take advantage of the better Australian Trade figures, as trade deal uncertainty continues to loom and keeps the AUD/USD pair in daily lows near 0.6875 region.