Australia trade surplus narrows unexpectedly in Jan as exports slip in World Economy News 06/03/2026 Australia’s trade surplus narrowed unexpectedly in January as weaker exports and a rebound in imports weighed on the external balance, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed on Thursday. The seasonally adjusted trade balance fell to A$2.63 billion in January from a revised A$3.37 billion in December, missing expectations of A$3.78 billion. Exports declined 0.9% month-on-month, reversing after a 0.9% rise, due to a 5.2% fall in rural goods and a 1.7% drop in non-rural goods. Iron ore and coal volumes weakened over the month, with hard coking coal shipments down sharply, while LNG exports edged up slightly. Imports rose 0.8% in January after slipping 1.8% in December. The rebound was largely due to a 46.8% surge in non-monetary gold. Capital goods imports increased 5.1%, while consumption and intermediate goods fell. The figures point to softer net export contributions at the start of the year, even as commodity prices remain volatile and global demand conditions uneven Source: Investing.com 2026-03-06 hellenicshippingnews... window.___gcfg = {lang: 'en-US'}; (function(w, d, s) { function go(){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], load = function(url, id) { if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.src = url; js.id = id; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }; load('//connect.facebook.net/en/all.js#xfbml=1', 'fbjssdk'); load('https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js', 'gplus1js'); load('//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js', 'tweetjs'); } if (w.addEventListener) { w.addEventListener("load", go, false); } else if (w.attachEvent) { w.attachEvent("onload",go); } }(window, document, 'script')); tweet Share