Economic Roundup - Australia trade balance turns surplus, Retail Sales fall. Canadian GDP falls. | CountingPips Forex & Currency Trading Blog

July 31, 2008 - Forex Economic News

Economic Roundup - Australia trade balance turns surplus, Retail Sales fall. Canadian GDP falls.

The Australian trade balance returned a surplus in June according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Australia’s trade balance for June was a seasonally adjusted surplus of A$411 million as the trade balance reversed a trade deficit of -A$253 million in May. Forex Economic News. Helping to increase the balance was a 2 percent rise in exports of goods and services. Non-rural goods exports rose by A$509 million, a 3 percent increase over May while the exports of services increased by A$42 million or a 1 percent increase. Imports decreased for the month by 1 percent to A$210.

Australian retail sales fell in June according to a separate report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today. June's seasonally adjusted retail sales declined by 1.0 percent after retail sales registered a revised 0.9 percent increase in May and a revised decrease of 0.4 percent in April. The retail sales data surpassed economic forecasts which were predicting a flat return in sales for the month. The leading negative contributors to the sales data were department stores with a -5.2 percent decline and clothing and soft good retailing with a -5.0 percent decline. The leading positive contributor to the retail sales data was household good retailing with and increase of 0.8 percent.

Out of Eurozone today, the eurozone consumer price index showed that prices hit a new record high at 4.1 percent in July. June's eurozone consumer prices had registered the previous record high of 4.0 percent. In a separate release, the eurozone June unemployment rate edged up to 7.3 percent from 7.2 percent in May while in Germany the number of employed workers declined by 20,000 in July(Federal Statistical Office Germany).

Canadian GDP declines in May.

The Canadian Gross Domestic Product declined by 0.1 percent in May according to a report by Statistics Canada released today. The May decline follows a gain of 0.4 percent in April. Contributing to the first quarter decline was a decline 0.9 percent in the energy sector output and a fall in the construction sector by 0.4 percent, third month in a row. The May GDP decline was unexpected by market economists as forecasts as were expecting a 0.2 percent increase for the quarter.

tags: aud, euro, cad, gdp, retail sales, trade balance

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