Australias trade deficit widened in May by more than economists estimated as exports of coal, wheat and natural gas fell.
The shortfall was A$556 million ($448 million) compared with a revised A$282 million deficit in April, the Bureau of Statistics said in Sydney today.
Australian businesses spending on machinery and equipment tumbled 9.6 percent in the first quarter, the biggest drop since the economy was last in a recession in 1991.
The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 20 economists was for a A$125 million gap.
Prices for Australias commodity exports have declined amid the global recession, damping a mining boom that drove the nations 17-year economic expansion.
BHP Billiton Ltd., the worlds biggest mining company, and Rio Tinto Group are among exporters that pared output, fired workers and cut capital expenditure in response to the slowdown in world demand.
There may be some downside to export numbers in the near- term because of the bad news on the commodity-price front, Michael Blythe, chief economist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney, said ahead of the report.
That should be mitigated to some extent by higher export volumes. We have China picking up and theres a better global economic backdrop.The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development last week raised its combined forecast for gross domestic product of its 30 member nations for the first time in two years.
Reports this week show Chinas manufacturing expanded for a fourth month, Japans business confidence improved and South Koreas factory production climbed for a fifth month, adding to signs the global slowdown is easing.
Imports fell 4 percent to A$20.95 billion in May. Imports of capital goods, such as trucks and machinery, dropped 14 percent and imports of consumer goods slipped 1 percent.
Exports declined 5 percent from April to A$20.39 billion. Shipments of non-rural goods, which include metals and minerals, fell 5 percent. Agricultural shipments dropped 3 percent in April, the trade report showed. Coal slumped 15 percent and cereals declined 7 percent.
