Australia dollar flattens import/export prices

Thursday 31 January 2013

If you want to know what the muscular dollar is doing to the economy then it’s plan as day in today’s fourth quarter import/export prices from the ABS.

Export prices were down 2.4% quarter on quarter despite the iron recovery:

the internals show the widespread damage in crude materials:

On the import side, prices rose just 0.3%:

With widespread deflation across the basket:

About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.