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Australia trade surplus increased moderately in May as the decline in imports exceeded the fall in exports, data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed Thursday.
The trade surplus increased to A$8.02 billion from A$7.83 billion in the previous month.
Exports of goods and services decreased 4 percent on monthly basis to A$35.74 billion. Exports of non-rural goods fell 4 percent and that of rural goods declined 10 percent. Non-monetary gold exports were down 12 percent.
At the same time, imports dropped 6 percent to A$27.71 billion.
ING Economist Robert Carnell said Australia has not always run trade surpluses, and it is only really since the end of 2016 that this has been the case. So to continue to do so during this period of extreme global and domestic stress is not a bad achievement, the economist added.
