Australia Trade Surplus At 17-Month High; Household Spending Growth Rises

(RTTNews) - Australia's trade surplus surged to the highest level in more than a year in July and household spending growth accelerated for the third straight month in July, official data showed on Thursday.

The trade surplus increased unexpectedly to A$7.3 billion in July from A$5.4 billion in June, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.

This was the biggest surplus since February 2024, when it totaled A$7.7 billion. Economists had forecast the surplus to drop to A$4.8 billion.

Exports increased 3.3 percent driven by non-rural goods. Meanwhile, imports dropped 1.3 percent largely due to non-monetary gold.

Household spending grew 0.5 percent in July from June, another data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed. This followed a 0.3 percent rise in June.

"Household spending rose for the third month in a row in July, and has now gone up nine times in the last 10 months," ABS head of business statistics Robert Ewing said.

Household spending advanced 5.1 percent from the last year, which was the biggest annual growth since November 2023. Spending had increased 4.6 percent in June.

Data showed that households spent more on health services, hotel accommodation, air travel, and dining out in July. By contrast, goods spending fell 0.3 percent.