Australian exports get a lift from surging China shipments

SYDNEY - Australian exports excluding farm goods surged by the most in almost three decades in April as shipments of iron ore and coal to China pushed the trade balance to a surplus for the first time in 12 months.

Shipments of non-farm goods jumped 18.4 percent from March to A$14.8 billion ($12.5 billion), the biggest increase since May 1982, the Bureau of Statistics said in Sydney on Thursday. The trade balance unexpectedly swung to a surplus of A$134 million from a revised deficit of A$2.04 billion. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 19 economists was for a A$800 million gap.

Australia's mineral wealth and proximity to China are stoking an economic expansion that is forecast by the central bank to almost double in the next two years. That may prompt Governor Glenn Stevens to resume the Group of 20's most aggressive round of interest-rate increases later this year after pausing this week.