Australia’s Export Prices Slide 4.5%, Deepening Terms-of-Trade Squeeze

Australian trade-price gauges fell sharply in the June quarter, pointing to easing external cost pressures. The Export Price Index dropped 4.5% from the previous quarter, undershooting economists’ consensus for a 3.0% decline and reversing a 2.1% rise in the March period. Import prices slipped 0.8% quarter-on-quarter, a milder fall than exports but still wider than the 0.4% contraction economists had expected and a turnaround from the prior quarter’s 3.3% increase. The twin declines suggest the terms of trade continued to soften after last year’s commodity-driven gains.