Australia's trade deficit narrows in Sept.

Australia's trade deficit narrowed to 284 million AU dollars (270 million U.S. dollars) in September, according to data released on Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The result was less than economists'forecasts of a 500 million AU dollar deficit.

The ABS said the balance on goods and services was a deficit of 284 in September, a fall of 409 million AU dollars on the deficit in August.

Exports of goods and services rose 124 million AU dollars to 27, 309 million AU dollars in September while imports of goods and services fell 285 million AU dollars to 27,593 million AU dollars in the month.

National Australia Bank senior economist Spiros Papadopoulos said the figures were better than the market expected.

"On the whole, there's a smaller deficit coming through and we' d expect some fairly good improvement to continue in the trade accounts in the coming year as our export sectors continue to record some pretty solid gains in volume growth over 2014," he said.