Australia's trade gap narrowed in August from July but was much wider than expected as the value of exports failed to improve due to falls in coal exports and a stronger Australian dollar.
Moves in the trade position are unlikely to affect the near-term outlook for monetary policy, but the numbers show any recovery in the global economy is yet to feed through to the nation's trading performance.
Australia's seasonally adjusted balance on trade in goods and services narrowed to a deficit of $1.52bn in August from an upwardly revised deficit of $1.78bn in July, the Bureau of Statistics said.
The latest figure is wider than analysts' expectations of a deficit of $900m. Exports fell 2% while imports fell 3%.