Australia’s War-Driven Fuel Costs Swing Trade Into Deficit (1)

Australia recorded its first trade deficit in more than eight years as the war in Iran drove up the cost of fuel imports, squeezing households and further fueling inflationary pressures that have forced the Reserve Bank to raise interest rates.

Exports fell 2.7% while imports jumped 14.1% in March, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed Thursday. That resulted in a deficit of $1.8 billion, the weakest reading since December 2017. The report showed fuel and lubricants soared by 54% from February.

“The surge in fuel imports reflected both a volume pickup in crude petroleum ...