Australia’s trade deficit was twice as wide as economists had forecast in January as coal exports fell and telecommunications equipment imports rose. Imports exceeded exports by A$1.06 billion ($1.08 billion), from a revised A$688 million deficit in December that was larger than originally reported, the Bureau of Statistics said in Sydney today. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 22 economists was for a deficit of A$500 million. The data validate central bank Governor Glenn Stevens’s decision to reduce interest rates four times last year to 3 percent, matching a half-century low, as commodity prices ... (full story)