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Trade Balance - Australia

The trade balance figure is simply the difference between the amount of export and imports of Australian goods and services for the reported month with Australia and other foreign trade partners. Subsequently, when exports are greater than imports, or positive net exports, a trade surplus is created. However, when imports are greater than exports, a deficit is created. Simply put, here, there is more money leaving the country than actually coming in. As a result, the report is taken into heavy consideration as it indicates flow of goods and services and stand as one of the biggest components of the Balance of Payments report.


There are a number of factors that work to diminish the market impact of Australian Trade Balance. The report is not very timely, released nearly a month after the reporting period. In addition, developments in many of the figure's components are usually well anticipated. Lastly, since the report reflects data for a specific reporting month, any significant changes in the Trade Balance should plausibly have been already felt during the month and not during the release of data. Despite these considerations, the Trade Balance is essential to forecasting long term trends in foreign exchange rates and has historically been one of the more important reports out of Australia.

The Trade Balance is reported in headlines seasonally adjusted, usually in millions of AUD. Technical Note: More specifically, Trade Balance is the aggregate of two separate balances: visible and invisible trade balance. Visible trade covers physical goods where invisible trade covers intangibles like services.

Relevance : Tends to move markets on release
Release schedule : 1:30 (GMT); monthly, near the end of every month
Revisions schedule : Monthly
Source of report : Australian Bureau of Statistics
Web Address : http://www.abs.gov.au/
Address of release : http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs%40.nsf/mf/5368.0
Refer > Balance on Goods and Services
AKA : Trade Balance, International Trade in Goods and Services, Balance on Goods and Services, Net Exports

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