managed to rack up a reported $54 billion deficit because of stimulus spending. swann says he wants australia to be the first economy to return to a surplus after the crisis. meantime, australia got upbeat trade news on monday. the government says the trade balance swung back into a surplus in march. exports outweighed imports by $1.74 billion. that was more than three times more than analysts have been expecting. it also would suggest that operations in queensland are getting back to normal after the devastating floods of a couple of months ago. those floods have cost australia s economy a lot more than originally thought. the government now says that losses from the weather add up to around $9.6 billion, considerably higher than earlier estimates. officials say the flooding dealt a bigger blow to queensland s coal production than first thought. they are raising damage estimates for crops lost by the cyclone in february and for lost