Australia's exports remain strong: economists

Australia's exports remain strong as the Asian economy keeps growing, said Australian economists on Thursday after official data showed a trade surplus of more than 2. 5 billion U.S. dollars in October.

Economist Ben Jarman from Australia's financial services firm JP Morgan said the headline number was broadly in line with market forecasts and predicted that interest rates would stay on hold until March next year.

"Exports we thought would have accelerated given the fact that the Chinese, and more broadly the emerging Asian data, seems to have turned a corner in the last couple of months," Jarman said.

"After shifting down in the middle of the year growth in that region seems to be ramping up which is obviously pretty positive for our export sector."

The Australian balance of goods and services was a surplus of 2. 63 billion AU dollars (2.54 billion U.S. dollars) in October from an upwardly revised surplus of 1.81 billion AU dollars (1.75 billion U.S. dollars) in September, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said on Thursday.

The median market forecast was for a surplus of 2 billion AU dollars (1.93 billion U.S. dollars) in the month.

During the month, exports were up 1.0 percent in adjusted terms, while imports were down 3.0 percent.

Meanwhile, chief economist Savanth Sebastian from Australia's leading Internet broker Commsec said the figures were in line with market expectations.

"Trade is an area that is going to boom and continue to show resilience and strength given the high iron ore and coal prices," Sebastian said.

Australian major bank Commonwealth Bank chief economist Michael Blythe said trade surpluses would continue but they would not get much bigger than where they are at the moment.
(Source:xinhua)