Market Commentary and Intraday News

Australia Has A$11.8 Billion Q2 Current Account Deficit

288 days ago

(RTTNews) - Australia posted a seasonally adjusted current account deficit of A$11.801 billion in the second quarter of 2012, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday - down 9 percent or A$1.196 billion from the first quarter.

The headline figure topped forecasts for a shortfall of A$12.2 billion following the A$14.892 billion deficit three months earlier.

The deficit on the balance of goods and services plunged 31 percent or A$631 million to A$1,382 million. The primary income deficit dropped 5 percent or A$520 million to A$10.199 billion.

In seasonally adjusted chain volume terms, the deficit on goods and services shed 6 percent or A$871 million from A$14.506 billion in the March quarter 2012 to A$13.635 billion in the June quarter 2012.

Net exports are expected to contribute 0.3 percentage points to GDP, below forecasts for 0.6 percentage points but up from -0.5 percentage points in the previous three months.

Australia's net IIP liability position was A$879.5 billion at the end of Q2, a decrease of A$5.2 billion from the previous quarter. Australia's net foreign debt liability increased A$14.9 billion to a liability position of a$756.2 billion.

Australia's net foreign equity liability decreased A$20.1 billion to a liability position of A$123.3 billion.

Upon the release of the data, the Australian dollar weakened against most major currencies, trading near a six-week low of 1.0226 against the U.S. dollar, a three-month low of 1.0090 against the Canadian dollar, a two-month low of 1.2320 against the Euro and 80.22 against the yen.

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