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Feature Article - Australia's International Trade in Services by State


This article was published in the 1998-1999 issue of Balance of Payments and International Investment Position (ABS Cat NO. 5363.0, p16-17)

The ABS has been publishing statistics on Australia's international trade in services by State since mid 1997. Table F2 in this article presents the latest estimates, for 1998-99, for international services credits (by State of provision) and international services debits (by State of consumption) by 11 broad services commodities. Travel credits are also split into 'education related' and 'other' travel services. The statistics are also available on a calendar year basis. Confidentiality severely restricts the detail that can be provided for some States and Territories, and precludes publishing the statistics on a quarterly basis.

The definition of the components of international trade in services used in table F2 are consistent with the trade in services measures as defined in Australia's balance of payments statistics. For a detailed definition of such services see the ABS publication Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia: Concepts, Sources and Methods 1998 (Cat no 5331.0).

Approximating state of trade in services

The State trade in services statistics have been compiled by splitting the Australia-wide totals using a number of assumptions and approximations which are briefly described below. While the State allocation methods for transportation, travel and communication services are considered reasonable, especially for the analysis of movements in the services, the allocation for other business services is primarily based on the location of the business reporting the information as a proxy for State of origin/consumption of that service.

For insurance, financial services, computer and information services, royalties and copyrights, other business services and personal, cultural and recreational services (which together account for about 25% of all trade in services), the State of trade approximation has been generated using the postcode of the business that provides the relevant data to the ABS. This approximation is quite good for many businesses and satisfactory for State or Territory aggregates, but in some cases it will not be satisfactory.

Where the State of reporting business as an approximation for State of trade is known to be either poor, such as for transportation and communication services, or irrelevant such as for travel, alternative estimation approaches have been used. For transportation services a combination of indicators are used to approximate the State allocation. These include merchandise trade statistics by State, and short term arrivals and departures by State of clearance. For travel credits, overseas arrivals and departures data by the State where most time was spent are used to approximate the State allocation of business and personal travel. For education-related travel credits, the Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs provides a State split. For travel debits, overseas arrivals and departures data for resident departures by State are used.

For communication services, a domestic indicator for allocating the consumption of telecommunications and postal services by State in the national accounts is used to approximate the State allocation of the cross border trade in these services. It is assumed that outgoing international calls and terminating connections for incoming international calls will be reasonably well aligned with total service consumption by State or Territory.

Care should be exercised in interpreting the State data because of the unknown impact of the use of these indicators and the location of the business as a proxy for State of origin/consumption.

Further information and longer time series for both calendar and financial year data by State can be obtained by contacting Karen MacLennan on Canberra (02) 6252 6689, or fax (02) 6252 7219, or email her at karen.maclennan@abs.gov.au.

F2. INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN SERVICES BY STATE, 1998-1999
		NSW	Vic	Qld	SA	WA	Tas	NT	ACT	Unallocate	Australia
CREDITS ($M)
Transportation		2 645	2 232	1 239	104	574	8	66	0	0	6 868
Travel		4 825	2 096	3 140	307	1 227	88	123	122	28	11 956
Education related		1 101	737	458	114	378	44	8	64	2	2 906
Other		3 724	1 359	2 682	193	849	44	115	58	26	9 050
Communication(a)		490	269	186	133	99	24	10	19	0	1 230
Construction services(b)		n.p.	n.p.	n.p.	n.p.	n.p.	n.p.	n.p.	n.p.	n.p.	n.p.
Financial services		402	307	3	0	1	0	0	0	3	716
Insurance services		546	286	0	0	0	0	0	0	27	859
Computer & information services		533	77	n.p.	n.p.	8	0	0	0	n.p.	676
Royalties & copyrights		356	83	n.p.	n.p.	12	0	0	4	n.p.	488
Other business services(b)		1 489	624	175	49	164	0	1	13	n.p.	2 570
Personal, cultural services		202	106	20	29	7	2	0	20	n.p.	386
Govt services n.i.e.		37	13	2	26	13	0	89	341	38	559
Confidential items		0	0	75	11	0	0	0	0	60	. .
Total		11 525	6 093	4 840	659	2 105	122	289	519	156	26 308
DEBITS ($M)
Transportation		-3 907	-2 567	-1 457	-305	-966	-37	-128	0	0	-9 367
Travel		-3 617	-2 223	-1 306	-421	-1 089	-87	-90	-180	-31	-9 044
Communication(a)		-477	-432	-251	-106	-128	-32	-25	-14	0	-1 465
Construction services(b)		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Financial services		-304	-164	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-468
Insurance services		-885	-37	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-922
Computer & information services		-199	-66	-3	n.p.	-2	0	0	n.p.	n.p.	-426
Royalties & copyrights		-1 118	-456	-18	n.p.	-17	0	0	n.p.	n.p.	-1 693
Other business services(b)		-1 115	-1 296	-129	-70	-398	-5	-2	n.p.	n.p.	-3 243
Personal, cultural services		-579	-148	-6	0	-2	0	0	n.p.	n.p.	-755
Govt services n.i.e.		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-499	-134	-633
Confidential items		0	0	0	-73	0	0	0	-30	-385	. .
Total		-12 201	-7 389	-3 170	-975	-2 602	-161	-245	-723	-550	-28 016
		(a) Communication services includes other services n.i.e. (b) Construction services credits is included in other business services credits.					(c) For cells annotated 'n.p.' the data are included in Confidential items.