MARCH KEY FIGURES

		Credit market outstandings at end	Demand for credit during	Other changes during	Credit market outstandings at end
		Dec Qtr 2007	Mar Qtr 2008	Mar Qtr 2008	Mar Qtr 2008
Non-financial domestic sectors		$b	$b	$b	$b
Non-financial corporations
	Private	2 072.8	26.9	-143.8	1 955.9
	National public	1.8	0.0	0.0	1.8
	State and local public	55.6	2.9	0.0	58.5
General government
	National	57.5	0.8	0.8	59.0
	State and local	36.7	0.4	0.0	37.1
Households		1 200.0	21.3	0.0	1 221.4
Total		3 424.5	52.3	-143.0	3 333.8

Total demand for credit

Credit market outstandings

MARCH KEY POINTS


SUMMARY

• Total credit markets outstandings of the non-financial domestic sectors at 31 March 2008 was $3,333.8b, a decrease of $90.7b from the previous quarter. Demand for credit during the quarter was $52.3b and valuation decreases were $143.0b.
• Demand for credit was down $3.7b from the previous quarter, driven by decreased demand by households, down $11.4b and offset by an increase in demand by private non-financial corporations, up $5.3b.
• The significant valuation decreases in the equity markets during March quarter ($346.2b) have had substantial effects on the levels of financial assets held by a number of sectors. Pension Funds equity assets incurred valuation decreases of $91.5b, and household equity assets incurred valuation decreases of $75.1b.

NON-FINANCIAL CORPORATIONS

• Private non-financial corporations raised a net $26.9b, with loans net $11.3b (down $6.6b), share issuance net $9.8b (up $2.7b) and bond issuance net $2.7b (up $10.7b).

GENERAL GOVERNMENT

• National general government raised a net $0.8b through issuance of bonds during the quarter. State and local general government raised a net $0.4b through loans.

HOUSEHOLDS

• Households raised a net $21.3b during the March quarter 2008, down from the December quarter 2007 estimate of $32.7b. Households borrowed $17.4b from banks (of which $12.5b was for owner-occupied housing and $4.6b for investment housing) and $2.2b from financial intermediaries n.e.c, up $15.2b from the December quarter 2007.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
June 2008	26 September 2008
September 2008	18 December 2008

CHANGES TO THIS ISSUE

There are no significant changes in this issue.


SIGNIFICANT EVENTS

The global financial crisis has caused changes in the structure and behaviour of financial markets. Sudden shifts in structural relationships which have existed for some time mean that data supplied by businesses to the ABS and ABS editing and compilation practices may not reflect the impact of these changes fully and in a timely manner. The ABS is working with providers and reviewing and updating, where needed, a range of methods relating to the collection and compilation of financial sector output, income, transactions, positions and prices. This process is likely to lead to revisions in future releases.

There were no significant privatisations impacting the aggregates this quarter.


REVISIONS IN THIS ISSUE

There have been revisions back to June quarter 2006 to previously published aggregates due to:

• quality assurance work undertaken with data providers to ABS Survey of Financial Information, ABS Survey of International Investment and APRA administration data sets.
• revisions to data sources and the methods used in the compilation of the listed equity markets have resulted in some significant revisions to the estimated values in these markets.

CONFIDENTIALITY OF FUTURE FUND

During the June quarter 2007, the Future Fund commenced investment activity. The Future Fund is a National General Government (NGG) unit and thus the investment activity and associated holdings of assets are recorded as part of the NGG sector. In order to maximise the availability of information about the activities of the NGG sector, ABS legislation allows the publication of identifiable information about this sector except where a request for confidentiality has been received from the relevant Minister. A request has been received and the relevant estimates have been confidentialised in this publication. The estimates will remain confidential in all future releases published up to and including 30 June 2008. As a consequence of suppressing estimates concerning the Future Fund's investment activity, it has been necessary to consequentially suppress other series in the affected tables to preserve confidentiality.

Following release of information by the Future Fund in February and April 2008, the ABS has received consent to remove supression previously applied to a small number of series.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Paul Romanis on Canberra (02) 6252 6104.