Australian posts massive trade surplus for March

SYDNEY, May 3 (Xinhua) -- For the third month in a row Australia has posted a trade surplus of more than 1 billion Australian dollars, said the Australian Bureau of Statistics' international trade report for March on Thursday.

In seasonally adjusted terms, the country recorded a surplus of 1.527 billion Australian dollars (1.15 billion U.S. dollars), the report said.

It was a pleasant surprise for economists who expected the figure to come in at around 950 million Australian dollars (715 million U.S. dollars).

According to the report, the main reason for the big lift was broad-based increases across all major categories.

But some of the largest improvements came from a 226 million-Australian dollars surge in cereal grain exports, a 131 million-Australian dollars rise in non-monetary gold sales and an increased volume of LNG gas to Asia, which was up 58 million Australian dollars.

Along with the sharp rise in exports, Australia's import totals also soared, up about 1.0 percent overall, on the back of greater fuel imports and a recent rally in global oil prices.

"We anticipated a broadly neutral impact," Westpac Bank's senior economist Andrew Hanlan said.

"But these figures suggest that the export upswing has resumed."

"The outlook for exports is positive in our view, led by LNG as new capacity comes on stream and services such as education and tourism in response to strong demand from the Asian region and complemented by the recent retreat in the Australian dollar." Enditem