Australia's trade deficit has blown out to more than $2 billion, with figures for the previous two months also downwardly revised.

Bureau of Statistics figures show Australia imported $2.03 billion worth of goods and services more than it exported in August.

That is the worst monthly result since March 2008.

Adding to August's disappointing result are steep revisions to the previous two results from July and June.

July's deficit has almost trebled from the original $556 million result to $1.53 billion, while June's deficit has been revised down again to nearly $800 million.

The fall in Australia's trade position was due to a 3 per cent slump in exports during August, while imports eased 1 per cent.

The value of exports fell $844 million in August, largely due to a 7 per cent ($464 million) fall in the value of metal ore and mineral exports, led by iron and copper ores.

Exports of coal and related products slid 11 per cent, or $372 million.

Most of the fall in export revenue was due to falling prices, with the volume of iron ore and coking coal shipped actually increasing.

UBS Australia chief economist Scott Haslem expects Australia's trade position to deteriorate further this year.

"The outlook over the next few months is for more weakness, but as we look out into 2013 it's going to depend very much on does China stabilise growth around 7 per cent and we start to see a stabilisation in our commodity prices," he said.

Mr Haslem says lower commodity prices and a high Australian dollar mean the Reserve Bank has more work to do to help the country generate income.

"Australia's getting less income and the only way you can get that income back is via monetary policy, fiscal policy or the Australian dollar," he explained.

"The Australian dollar doesn't look like its shaking off its safe haven status, fiscal policy looks like its likely to be tightened, so there's no surprise that there's a role for the RBA here in terms of trimming the cash rate."

In contrast, tourism earnings coming into Australia rose 2 per cent, or $55 million.

On the import side, demand for consumption goods was up 2 per cent but imports of fuels and lubricants were down 13 per cent.

The Australian dollar lost around 0.2 US cents on the data and was trading at 102.15 US cents at 4:05pm (AEST).