Australia has recorded a trade surplus of $1.65 billion in May 2010 which was way beyond the predicted $500 million value. The large Australian trade surplus may well be reflective of the rise in commodity prices rather than a larger volume of exports, but it will still boost the growth for the domestic economy in the second half of the year.
The Australian dollar was already seeing the positive effect of the announcement of the trade surplus trading at US84.87 cents by late afternoon. Most economists were surprised at the size of the surplus recorded by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The surging coal and iron prices have been the main contributors increasing by 10%, however the biggest rise in exports came surprisingly from rural goods which climbed 11% to $2.3 billion. Another help to the surplus was gold which surged 66% to $1.93 billion.
The figures for Australia's trade partners showed China to be the largest market for Australian exports followed by Japan and USA.