SA trade balance concern
The gap between South Australia’s exports and imports is a concern for the state’s trade balance, says Business SA director of policy Rick Cairney.
South Australian exports decreased by 2.6 per cent in April compared with a 9.3 per cent increase in imports, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
“Trade figures are often volatile month to month,” Cairney said in a statement, “[but] while it is pleasing to see that exports grew 15 per cent in the year to April for SA, it is concerning for our trade balance that SA’s imports rose nearly 42 per cent over the same period.”
He said the rise in imports was due to the persistently high Australian dollar.
“Exports will be a key driver of economic growth and prosperity for South Australia over the next few years, and it is important that both the state and federal governments continue to work together to help facilitate export growth, particularly amongst smaller businesses.”
Nationally, the trade deficit on goods and services was $122 million in April, following a surplus of $902 million in the previous month. Economists had expected a surplus of $1 billion for the month.
Falling prices for iron ore and coal appeared to be the main factor, JP Morgan economist Tom Kennedy told AAP.
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“It was clearly worse than what the market had sought,” Mr Kennedy said.
“There were price declines in key commodity groups earlier in the year, iron ore and coal, and we thought they were going to catch up with the data at some stage. It looks like we have seen that today.
“But volumes have been quite strong so there’s no reason to think this is a volume issue; we think it’s a price-related issue.”
The ABS figures show exports fell 1 per cent in April, while imports rose 2 per cent.
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