One signal

Australia’s trade surplus is on course to hit its lowest level in a decade this year, as imports of chips and servers for data centres rise, Bloomberg reports. The report also points to higher energy costs.

That makes the data-centre build-out visible in an unexpected place: the national trade balance, where infrastructure spending shows up as imports. It is a forecast for the year, not a final tally.

Discuss: Should Australia treat these imports as a worthwhile investment in computing capacity, or a growing economic vulnerability?

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