Australia Current Account Deficit Widens Sharply in 2Q

Australia's current account deficit widened to a seasonally adjusted A$9.56 billion in the second quarter from the first quarter, the Australia Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday.

Economists had expected a current account deficit of A$7.5 billion in the quarter. The deficit in the first quarter was revised up to A$4.8 billion from a previously estimated A$3.1 billion.

The seasonally adjusted deficit on goods and services fell by A$1.2 billion over the quarter, which is expected to add 0.3 percentage points to GDP.

GDP will be reported on Wednesday and economists predict the economy grew solidly in the second quarter from the first.

Australia's net foreign debt fell by 2.0% in the second quarter from the previous three months to A$991 billion, the ABS said.

-Write to James Glynn at james.glynn@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 04, 2017 21:50 ET (01:50 GMT)