DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

			Sep Qtr 2009	Dec Qtr 2009	Sep Qtr 2009 to Dec Qtr 2009
			$m	$m	% change
BALANCE ON CURRENT ACCOUNT
	Trend estimates		-14 587	-17 509	-20
	Seasonally adjusted		-14 731	-17 459	-19
BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES
	Trend estimates		-3 345	-6 349	. .
	Seasonally adjusted		-4 224	-6 062	. .
NET PRIMARY INCOME
	Trend estimates		-11 027	-10 973	-
	Seasonally adjusted		-10 270	-11 234	-9
LEVELS AT END OF PERIOD
	International Investment Position		756 233	768 628	2
		Net foreign equity	122 511	120 733	-1
		Net foreign debt	633 722	647 895	2
. . not applicable
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

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

International Investment

DECEMBER KEY POINTS


BALANCE OF PAYMENTS

• The current account deficit, seasonally adjusted, rose $2,728m (19%) to $17,459m in the December quarter 2009. The deficit on the balance on goods and services rose $1,838m to $6,062m. The primary income deficit increased $964m (9%) to $11,234m.
• In seasonally adjusted chain volume terms, the deficit on goods and services increased $3,790m from $3,960m in the September quarter 2009 to $7,750m in the December quarter 2009. This is expected to detract 1.3 percentage points from growth in the December quarter 2009 volume measure of GDP.

INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT POSITION (IIP)

• Australia' net IIP rose $12.4b to a net liability position of $768.6b in the December quarter 2009. Australia's net foreign debt liability increased $14.2b to a liability position of $647.9b. Australia's net foreign equity liability decreased $1.8b to a liability position of $120.7b.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
March 2010	31 May 2010
June 2010	31 August 2010
September 2010	30 November 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 2008. In original terms, these revisions have:

• increased the 2008-09 current account deficit by $376m
• decreased the deficit for September quarter 2009 by $1,596m.

Chain volume measures of goods credits have been revised from the September quarter 2008. This is due to the updating of prices in the weighting structure used to aggregate components. The prices have been updated to 2006-07 prices.

The financial account and international investment position have been revised back to September quarter 2008, resulting in an increase of $4,019m in Australia's net IIP liability as at 30 September 2009 to a liability position of $756,233m.

Seasonally adjusted and trend series are revised due to the incorporation of revised estimates and the incorporation of estimates for the latest quarter.


CHANGES IN THIS AND FORTHCOMING ISSUES

Changes in this issue:

• Changes in time series spreadsheets tables 109 and 110
• A Glossary has been included.

Changes in forthcoming issues:

• Changes to Selected international accounts ratios - Table 35 from the March quarter 2010 issue of this publication.

TREND ESTIMATES

Caution should be used when interpreting recent trend estimates as they may be affected by unusual economic factors. For more details on trend estimates, please see paragraph 14 of the explanatory notes.


INQUIRIES

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