Export surge
Australia's international trade balance trounced expectations, rebounding to notch a strong surplus of $12.4 billion.
Coal exports were significantly curtailed by severe flooding, as expected, but this was offset by a tremendous surge in LNG exports to an all-time high of more than $10 billion in a single month.
Prices have surged dramatically since the onset of the war in Ukraine, delivering a huge increase in export values.
This helped to drag overall exports 7 per cent higher, while imports were flat on reduced price pressures.
Tourism services credits have doubled since the beginning of the year, which is great to see for Australia.
But anecdotally there are still massive visa backlogs with waiting times of well over a month, so tourism exports are still only running at about 60 per cent of where it was pre-pandemic.
We also still had many Aussies travelling overseas in September, and this has punched a hole in the trade services balance.
Still, overall, strong export numbers, delivered by a thumping $10¼ billion of LNG exports in the month.
One wonders if the new government will step in to solve the energy price crisis in one fell swoop with a windfall tax on LNG profits?
---
More grown-up analysis here with James Foster.
