Australian Bureau of Statistics

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MAY KEY FIGURES

	March 2011	April 2011	May 2011
	$m	$m	$m
Food and live animals	740	685	715
Beverages and tobacco	142	144	140
Crude materials, inedible, except fuels	250	187	280
Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials	3 443	3 334	3 190
Animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes	39	47	60
Chemicals and related products, nes	2 279	2 012	1 990
Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material	1 828	1 772	1 993
Machinery and transport equipment	6 934	5 977	6 583
Miscellaneous manufactured articles	2 134	2 094	2 181
Commodities and transactions not classified elsewhere in the SITC	735	1 111	930
TOTAL	18 523	17 363	18 061

• In original terms, the May 2011 merchandise imports were $18,061m, an increase of $698m (4%) on the revised April 2011 merchandise imports of $17,363m.

• Preliminary analysis shows that goods debits (imports) on a balance of payments basis in original terms rose $551m (3%) between April and May 2011. In seasonally adjusted terms goods debits fell $7m from $18,771m in April 2011 to $18,764m in May 2011. Capital goods fell $347m (8%) with the civil aircraft and other confidentialised items component down $301m (42%). Non-monetary gold fell $23m (6%). Consumption goods rose $204m (4%) with the non-industrial transport equipment component up $219m (23%) following a fall of 31% the previous month. Intermediate and other merchandise goods rose $159m (2%).

• The Japanese earthquake and tsunami occurred on 11 March 2011. On a month to month basis, original series can be impacted by a number of factors including commodity prices, exchange rates, supply constraints, consumer confidence and unusual influences. It is not usually possible to quantify the impact of a specific event, like the Japanese earthquake and tsunami on the import series. The impact of these events will be closely monitored by the ABS.
• Between April and May 2011 merchandise imports from Japan rose $314m (40%) following a fall of $711m (48%) between March and April 2011. The non-industrial transport equipment component fell $494m (81%) between March and April 2011, but rose $190m between April and May 2011. The fuels and lubricants component was up $150m between April and May 2011.