AUGUST KEY FIGURES

		Jul 2011	Aug 2011	Jul 2011 to Aug 2011
		$m	$m	% change
TREND ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation(a)	14 361	14 554	1.3
	Personal finance	7 081	7 145	0.9
	Commercial finance	32 298	32 948	2.0
	Lease finance	398	399	0.3
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation(a)	14 420	14 513	0.6
	Personal finance	7 043	7 199	2.2
	Commercial finance	32 024	34 546	7.9
	Lease finance	393	419	6.6
(a) Excludes alterations and additions

Personal Finance

Commercial Finance

AUGUST KEY POINTS


AUGUST 2011 COMPARED WITH JULY 2011:

HOUSING FINANCE FOR OWNER OCCUPATION

• The total value of owner occupied housing commitments excluding alterations and additions rose 1.3% in trend terms and the seasonally adjusted series rose 0.6%.

PERSONAL FINANCE

• The trend series for the value of total personal finance commitments rose 0.9%. Fixed lending commitments rose 0.9% and revolving credit commitments rose 0.9%.
• The seasonally adjusted series for the value of total personal finance commitments rose 2.2%. Fixed lending commitments rose 2.9% and revolving credit commitments rose 1.5%.

COMMERCIAL FINANCE

• The trend series for the value of total commercial finance commitments rose 2.0%. Revolving credit commitments rose 2.9% and fixed lending commitments rose 1.6%.
• The seasonally adjusted series for the value of total commercial finance commitments rose 7.9% in August 2011, following a 5.0% rise in July 2011. Fixed lending commitments rose 8.6%, following a 1.5% rise in the previous month. Revolving credit commitments rose 6.4%.

LEASE FINANCE

• The trend series for the value of total lease finance commitments rose 0.3% and the seasonally adjusted series rose 6.6%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
September 2011	14 November 2011
October 2011	13 December 2011
November 2011	17 January 2012
December 2011	15 February 2012
January 2012	15 March 2012
February 2012	16 April 2012

REVISIONS

In this issue revisions have been made to the original series as a result of improved reporting of survey and administrative data. These revisions impact on:

• Commercial finance values, including investment housing, for July 2011;
• Personal finance values and increased credit limits outstanding at the end of the month for July 2011; and
• Owner occupied housing finance values for June 2011 and July 2011.

Seasonally adjusted and trend series have been revised as a result of revisions to the original series, the incorporation of estimates for the latest month and the revision of seasonal factors due to the concurrent seasonal adjustment methodology.


IMPACT OF THE FLOODS

Flooding began in late December 2010 in Queensland, and was more extensive in both Queensland and other states in January 2011. On a month to month basis, original and seasonally adjusted series can be impacted by a number of factors including interest rates, supply constraints, consumer confidence and unusual influences. The specific impact of floods on these estimates can not be quantified.

The trend series provide an estimate of the underlying behavior of a series over time but, in the short term, may be distorted by unusual influences impacting on the original and seasonally adjusted estimates. Trend series will be subject to revision in future issues as additional monthly original estimates become available. Users are advised to exercise caution when using the most recent trend estimates. For further information please refer to page 3 of the August 2009 issue of Australian Economic Indicators (cat. no. 1350.0).


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Steve Sykes on Canberra (02) 6252 6446.