5302.0 - Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia, Sep 2003  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 01/12/2003   
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Feature Article - Gross External Debt



AUSTRALIA'S EXTERNAL DEBT

Quarterly statistics on Australia's foreign debt have been published as a component of the international investment position (IIP) for many years. International investment statistics are compiled in accordance with the standards set out in the Fifth Edition of the International Monetary Fund's Balance of Payments Manual (BPM5, 1993).

The level of Australia's foreign debt is presented in detail in Table 35 of this publication, with data on debt transactions presented in Table 34. Both tables show debt assets (where Australian residents have a non-equity claim on non-residents), debt liabilities (where non-residents have a non-equity claim on Australian residents) and the net debt position. A summary of the net foreign debt position, in reconciliation format, is presented in Table 2.

More recently, the External Debt Statistics: Guide for Compilers and Users (available on the IMF website http://www.imf.org/external/np/sta/ed/guide.htm) has introduced the concept of "external debt", which differs from the definition of foreign debt that the ABS uses in the IIP. The difference is that external debt excludes financial derivatives. The Guide's external debt presentation also includes only debt liabilities, with no provision for the presentation or netting off of debt assets.

In keeping with Australia's reporting obligations under the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard, to which Australia and 52 other countries have subscribed, the ABS will publish each quarter in this publication external debt statistics in addition to the existing foreign debt statistics. This will enable analysts to have external debt data available on a basis comparable with the statistics produced by other countries.

The table below presents Australia's external debt according to the Guide's formulation. Financial derivative liabilities are shown as a memorandum item to reconcile external debt with foreign debt liabilities presented in Table 35.

This information is provided in a table in the 'Analysis' section of the publication. The table will be incorporated into the main body of the tables from next quarter.

GROSS EXTERNAL DEBT

Gross External Debt Liabilities (a) (b) (c) - Levels - $million


Sep Qtr
Dec Qtr
Mar Qtr
Jun Qtr
Sep Qtr
2002
2002
2002
2003
2003 p

Direct investment liabilities
61,984
68,175
65,813
63,058
63,770
    External debt liabilities to affiliated enterprises
12,133
12,553
12,503
12,639
13,236
    External debt liabilities to direct investors
49,851
55,622
53,310
50,419
50,534
Other liabilities
455,218
461,479
456,098
460,719
468,969
    General government
25,302
23,858
22,246
24,049
24,161
      Short term
557
975
296
0
0
        Money market instruments
557
975
296
0
0
      Long term
24,745
22,883
21,950
24,050
24,161
        Bonds and notes
24,620
22,758
21,829
23,932
24,041
        Loans and other liabilities
125
125
121
118
120
    Financial corporations
366,615
373,170
370,860
372,836
380,625
    Monetary authorities
35
50
37
150
108
      Short term
35
50
37
150
108
        Currency and deposits
35
50
37
150
108
    Depository corporations
277,333
281,761
279,452
281,648
281,852
      Short term
160,377
162,845
162,727
158,142
148,954
        Money Market instruments
64,824
62,015
60,928
55,583
55,088
        Trade credits
18
37
83
179
203
        Loans and other liabilities
35,937
41,647
41,858
39,783
29,088
        Currency and deposits
59,598
59,146
59,858
62,597
64,575
      Long term
116,957
118,918
116,725
123,507
132,900
        Bonds and notes
110,369
112,389
110,071
116,578
123,563
        Loans and other liabilities
6,588
6,529
6,654
6,929
9,337
    Other financial corporations
89,247
91,359
91,371
91,038
98,665
      Short term
19,571
19,052
14,090
12,995
13,260
        Money market instruments
6,331
6,797
5,157
3,068
4,347
        Trade credits
919
580
450
564
530
        Loans and other liabilities
12,321
11,675
8,483
9,363
8,383
      Long term
69,675
72,306
77,283
78,042
85,406
        Bonds and notes
68,541
71,187
75,712
76,613
83,986
        Trade credits
23
24
24
26
26
        Loans and other liabilities
1,111
1,095
1,547
1,403
1,394
    Other sectors
63,301
64,451
62,992
63,834
64,183
      Short term
8,663
9,559
8,450
8,912
9,185
        Money market instruments
5,100
5,789
4,988
4,835
5,454
        Trade credits
2,772
2,966
2,670
2,929
2,603
        Loans and other liabilities
791
804
792
1,148
1,128
      Long term
54,638
54,893
54,542
54,923
55,000
        Bonds and notes
45,173
45,785
45,349
45,164
44,515
        Trade credits
149
243
214
333
340
        Loans and other liabilities
9,316
8,865
8,979
9,426
10,145
GROSS EXTERNAL DEBT (d)
517,202
529,653
521,911
523,779
532,740
Financial derivative liabilities
30,851
36,181
39,093
44,522
41,858
FOREIGN DEBT LIABILITIES (e)
548,053
565,834
561,004
568,301
574,598

(a) Instruments are valued at market value or best available proxy.
(b) Liabilities include accrued interest and exclude equity and financial derivative liabilities
(c) The short term/long term classification is on an original maturity basis.
(d) Gross External Debt as defined in External debt Statistics: Guide for Compilers and Users.
(e) Foreign Debt as shown in ABS's International Investment Position.



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