Near-record trade deficit 'last for a while' Australia has recorded its second-largest monthly trade deficit.
The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reveal Australia's deficit with the rest of the world in goods and services grew to $2.7 billion in March.
Exports fell 1 per cent to $13 billion, while imports rose 2 per cent to $16 billion.
The Acting Trade Minister, John Anderson, says the size of the deficit can be traced to a surge in oil imports, which he believes will eventually be offset by increased exports of coal and gas.
But Labor's trade spokesman, Simon Crean, says the figures are terrible.
"What we've got is the second-largest trade deficit in history and this comes off the back of record prices for our commodities," he said.
"So we've got favourable terms of trade, we've got strong growth in the world economy, but we've got record deficits on the trade figures."
End in sight
However, many analysts are expecting this to be the last of disappointing trade figures, with prices paid by Chinese companies for Australian minerals to increase substantially in April.
Scott Haslem, from UBS, says the balance of trade could look quite different by the end of the year.
"We should see a marked drop in the trade deficit as soon as next month," he said.
"The $2.7 billion trade deficit we saw for the month of March, we expect to see that down below $1 billion - maybe even below $500 million - towards the end of this year."
