KEATING SEES LOWER AUSTRALIAN CURRENT DEFICIT Australian Treasurer Paul Keating said he expects the country's 1986/87 current account deficit to be one billion dlrs lower than the 14.7 billion forecast in the August budget. Keating told a financiers' dinner that February's 750 mln dlr deficit, against January's 1.23 billion, was "in the groove" of the government's expectations. "We will probably bring the current account this year under 14 billion, I think, which will probably be about a billion dollars less than we forecast in the budget," Keating said. "I am sure we will see a lower current account deficit for next year ... And a fall as proportion of GDP." Australia posted a 13.82 billion dlr current account deficit in 1985/86 and Keating said the latest monthly figures showed an encouraging trend. Keating said the government would maintain responsible economic management regardless of whether it was drawn into an election, because it would take time to stabilise Australia's 80 billion dlr foreign debt. "We have to build the import competing sector back," he said. "We are now trying to rebuild our capital structure. We are trying to rebuild the culture of productivity and manufacturing." Keating said the foundation for a transition of the economy had been laid with the floating of the Australian dollar and continued with wage restraint and deregulation. The Government would follow with spending cuts in its economic statement on May 14, he said.