Australia: Trade surplus holds at near record high - Westpac

Andrew Hanlan, analyst at Westpac, notes that Australia's trade surplus printed at $4.9bn in April, unchanged from March and only a fraction below the record high of $5.0bn in February.

Key Quotes

“The April outcome was broadly in line with market expectations but fell a little short of our forecast (market median $5.0bn and Westpac $5.4bn).”

“Imports rebounded from a softer showing in March, albeit by a little more than we anticipated, up 2.8% (+$1.0bn) vs a forecast +2.3%.”

“Exports advanced, up 2.5% (+$1.0bn), a little shy of our forecast +3.2%.”

“The trade surplus has climbed to be at record highs in 2019.”

“On the back of these larger trade surpluses, the current account deficit has narrowed sharply to be at historic lows, coming in at only 0.6% of GDP in the March quarter 2019, the smallest deficit since 1979 Q4 (also a -0.6% of GDP) and before that, 1975 Q2, which was a surplus, +0.2% of GDP.”