MARCH KEY FIGURES

			Dec Qtr 2008	Mar Qtr 2009	Dec Qtr 2008 to Mar Qtr 2009
			$m	$m	% change
BALANCE ON CURRENT ACCOUNT
	Trend estimates		-6 367	-3 676	42
	Seasonally adjusted		-6 357	-4 614	27
BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES
	Trend estimates		4 021	6 112	52
	Seasonally adjusted		4 175	5 075	22
NET INCOME
	Trend estimates		-10 236	-9 602	6
	Seasonally adjusted		-10 360	-9 498	8
LEVELS AT END OF PERIOD
	International Investment Position		713 802	734 638	3
		Net foreign equity	18 555	60 459	226
		Net foreign debt	695 247	674 180	-3

Current Account, Main aggregates - Trend estimates at current prices (a)

International Investment

MARCH KEY POINTS


BALANCE OF PAYMENTS

• The current account deficit, seasonally adjusted, fell $1,743m (27%) to $4,614m in the March quarter 2009. The surplus on goods and services increased $900m (22%) to $5,075m. The income deficit decreased $862m (8%) to $9,498m.
• In seasonally adjusted chain volume terms there was a decrease of $5,964m (87%) in the deficit on goods and services. This is expected to add 2.2 percentage points to growth in the March quarter 2009 volume measure of GDP.

INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT POSITION (IIP)

• Australia's net IIP rose $20.8b to a net liability position of $734.6b in the March quarter 2009. Australia's net foreign debt liability decreased by $21.1b to a liability position of $674.2b. Australia's net foreign equity liability increased $41.9b to a liability position of $60.5b.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
June 2009	1 September 2009
September 2009	8 December 2009
December 2009	1 March 2010

REVISIONS

Table 36 summarises revisions, in original current price terms, since the last issue of this publication, for the last three years and six quarters. Incorporation of the latest survey and administrative data has resulted in revisions to the current account back to September quarter 2005. In original terms, these revisions have increased the 2007-08 current account deficit by $335m, increased the deficit by $771m in the September quarter 2008, and decreased the deficit for the December quarter 2008 by $391m. In seasonally adjusted chain volume terms, revisions increased the volume deficit on goods and services by $275m for the September quarter 2008 and decreased the volume deficit by $234m for the December quarter 2008.

The financial account and international investment position have been revised back to September quarter 2005, resulting in a decrease of $52m in Australia's net IIP liability as at 31 December 2008 to $713,802m.


SEPTEMBER QUARTER 2009 RELEASE

As advised in the previous issue, the ABS will introduce revised international standards into the Balance of Payments, National Accounts and related series with the September quarter 2009 releases (see Information papers below). To enable series to be compiled and validated according to the new standards, the September quarter issue of this publication will be released one week later than normal.


INFORMATION PAPERS

An information paper detailing changes to international standards applying to the statistics in this publication is scheduled for release on 22 July 2009 (cat. no. 5302.0.55.002). A separate paper outlining changes applying to the presentation of statistics in International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia (cat. no. 5368.0) will be released on 17 June 2009 (cat. no. 5368.0.55.012). Both papers describe the background to the changes, the timing of the changes, and provide mock-ups of the proposed publications and related spreadsheets.


SUPPLEMENTARY PUBLICATION

International Investment Position, Australia: Supplementary Statistics, 2008 (cat. no. 5352.0) was released on 15 May 2009 and supplements this publication by presenting statistics on Australia’s international investment position by countries. For both Australian investment abroad (assets) and foreign investment in Australia (liabilities), it includes details of investment stocks (level of investment), flows (transactions) and associated income by country.


GOODS DEBITS CONFIDENTIALITY

The confidentiality treatment impacting on the civil aircraft, capital goods n.e.s and other merchandise goods components is described in 'Changes to Import Confidentiality Restrictions'.


INQUIRIES

For further information contact Selvi Sekhar on Canberra (02) 6252 5540 for balance of payments estimates, and Joe Whelan on Canberra (02) 6252 5541 for international investment estimates.