Australia Trade Surplus Declines

(RTTNews) - Australia's trade surplus declined notably in August, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.

The trade surplus fell to A$495 million from A$1.35 billion in July. Economists had forecast the surplus to rise to A$2.0 billion. Nonetheless, the trade balance showed surplus for the third straight month.

Exports of goods increased 3.7 percent from the last month driven by non-monetary gold and coal, coke and briquettes.

At the same time, imports rose 5.8 percent on higher demand for capital goods and non-monetary gold.