Trade gap narrows as imports fall The Economy November 6, 2013 - 12:34PM Australia's trade deficit narrowed in September and trade accounts are expected to continue improving thanks to export volume growth. Australia's trade balance stayed in the red in September with a deficit of $284 million, following a deficit of $693 million in August, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. Economists had expected a deficit of $500 million in September. During the month, exports were flat, while imports were down 1.0 per cent, the ABS said. ""The bottom line was a bit better than the market expected,"" National Australia Bank senior economist Spiros Papadopoulos said. ""On the whole, there's a smaller deficit coming through and we'd expect some fairly good improvement to continue in the trade accounts in the coming year as our export sectors continue to record some pretty solid gains in volume growth over 2014."" more to come