Australia just posted another huge current
account deficit
Australia has just posted another massive trade
deficit in October, the Bureau of Statistics said this
morning.
The ABS said the goods and services deficit
ballooned by $902 million (38%) to $3.305 billion in
October (in seasonally adjusted terms). That’s only the
seventh trade deficit above $3 billion this century.
But it is the fourth time this year the deficit has
printed above the $3 billion mark. That was against
market expectations of a deficit of $2.665 billion.
Driving the deficit’s deterioration was an $829
million fall in goods and services credits with
non-rural goods down $544 million and non-monetary gold
down $115 million. Breaking down the data further, the
big falls in non-rural goods were minerals, which dipped
$366 million and metals, which dropped $175 million.
On the import side of the equation, there was only a
small rise in goods and services debits of $74 million.
But that rather benign move masked a fall in consumer
goods imports of $349 million and a rise of $243 million
in capital goods and a $268 million rise in intermediate
and other goods.