Australia’s Export Slump Intensifies Rate-Cut Pressure: Economy

Australia unexpectedly posted back-to-back trade deficits as coal and metal exports slumped, sending the currency lower and intensifying pressure on the central bank to resume cutting interest rates.

Imports outpaced exports by A$480 million ($493 million) in February, from a revised A$971 million deficit a month earlier, the first consecutive shortfalls in two years, a Bureau of Statistics report showed in Sydney today. That contrasted with the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey for a A$1.1 billion surplus as exports dropped 2 percent after a 9 percent decline in January.