Australia's exports to China have hit record levels, as it posted a fourth consecutive monthly trade surplus.
Exports to China over the 12 months to March passed $100 billion, making up 37 per cent of Australia's total exports.
The boom in investment in mines and resource projects over recent years is starting to pay off, CommSec economist Savanth Sebastian said.
"Mining investment may have flattened, but the boost to the economy from Chinese purchases of our resources is ongoing," he said.
"While some fret that the mining boom is over, in the background Australia continues to rack up record trade surpluses with China.
"Our reliance on China is now even greater than when Japanese industrialisation was at its peak."
Australia recorded a trade surplus of $731 million in March, the fourth straight month of surpluses - the longest run of healthy trade positions since 2011.
March's surplus was down from $1.257 billion in February, as exports fell by two per cent and imports were flat.
RBC Capital Markets currency strategist Michael Turner said the fall in exports was driven almost entirely by a fall in metal ore exports.
"Spot iron ore prices were down on average almost nine per cent in March relative to February in Australian dollar terms, which suggests that volumes held up reasonably well," he said.
"Unadjusted data from both the ABS and Port Hedland also suggest as much.
"In real terms, net exports appear to have made a large positive contribution to economic growth in the first quarter, underpinning another healthy quarter of national accounts."
Mr Sebastian said the fall in the surplus was just a temporary setback, and he expects exports to grow as the year goes on.
"It's going to continue to grow, it's going to continue to be a big income story," he said.
Despite being weaker than expected, March's trade surplus continued a strong trend, National Australia Bank senior economist David de Garis said.
"We've had three pretty solid surpluses for January, February and March," he said.
"It's a pretty solid start to the year and confirms a solid contribution from net exports to economic growth for the first quarter as well."
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