March trade surplus ‘a corker’

But seasonally adjusted exports increased by just $16m from February to $24.6bn in March, boosted by rural goods such as cereal grains and cereal preparation components, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said. Australia’s exports in March 2008 were $19.7bn.
Meanwhile, seasonally adjusted imports fell 3%, or $730m from a month earlier to $22.1bn as non-monetary gold slumped 46%, or $806m, the ABS said.
Imports in March last year were $22.2bn.
Overseas trade was a seasonally adjusted surplus of $2.5bn in March, up $746m from February 2009 due to the decline in imports.
National Australia Bank senior economist David de Garis described the trade surplus as a “corker”.
“Australia’s trade account has not deteriorated as feared with net exports still supporting growth so far this year,” Mr de Garis said.
“It is remarkable the wake of the global financial crisis that Australia’s trade surplus has continued to grow and a far cry from the horrible exports data released offshore,” he said.
According to the NAB, wheat was likely to fall by less than 1% in 2009/10 to 21.2m tonnes as an expected fall in the area planted to wheat offsets a predicted increase in yields.
The bank also expects barley production to fall 5% over this period to 6.5m tonnes.