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Note: 15 June 2007
Table 31 has been reissued due to a technical problem, as the data for March Quarter 2007 was inadvertently dropped. All other data was correct.


MARCH KEY FIGURES

		Dec Qtr 2006	Mar Qtr 2007	Dec Qtr 2006 to Mar Qtr 2007
		$m	$m	% change
TREND ESTIMATES
Balance on current account		-14 677	-15 561	-6
Balance on goods and services		-2 947	-3 393	-15
Net income		-11 614	-12 059	-4
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED
Balance on current account		-15 502	-15 381	1
Balance on goods and services		-3 653	-3 311	9
Net income		-11 729	-11 973	-2
ORIGINAL
Balance on current account		-15 031	-15 129	-1
Balance on capital and financial account		14 606	15 533	6
Levels at end of period
Net international investment position		605 899	623 929	3
	Net foreign equity	80 085	91 502	14
	Net foreign debt	525 815	532 426	1

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 $121m (1%) to $15,381m. The deficit on the balance of goods and services fell $342m (9%) to $3,311m. The income deficit rose $244m (2%) to $11,973m.
• In seasonally adjusted chain volume terms there was an increase of $587m (5%) in the deficit on goods and services. This could be expected to contribute -0.2 percentage points to growth in the March quarter 2007 volume measures of GDP.

• Australia's net IIP rose $18.0b to a net liability position of $623.9b. Net foreign debt was $532.4b, an increase of $6.6b. Net foreign equity increased by $11.4b to $91.5b.

Incorporation of the latest survey and administrative data has resulted in revisions to the current account back to September quarter 2004. In original terms, revisions have increased the 2005-06 current account deficit by $250m. The financial account and international investment position have been revised back to September quarter 2005 decreasing Australia's net IIP liability as at 31 December 2006 by $1,033m.

CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

Quarterly seasonal adjustment factors

The format of the datacube containing seasonal adjustment factors (Table 95 - Quarterly seasonal adjustment factors and forward factors for 4 quarters) is to be changed to align with the current standard of excel spreadsheets (i.e. in .xls format). The new format will be available as Table 96 and both Tables 95 and 96 are available in this issue. Table 95 will be withdrawn from the June 2007 issue of this publication.

Changes to export and import statistical codes

The ABS has implemented an update to the international Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System from January 2007 which has resulted in revisions to detailed statistical codes applied to merchandise trade data. While the merchandise trade data forms the bulk of the input data for compiling the goods credits and debits components of the current account, no significant impacts were identified in the more aggregated series presented on a balance of payments basis.

CHANGES TO FUTURE ISSUES

A new reference year for volume measures is typically updated annually in the June quarter issue. From 2007 onwards the reference year will be updated in the September quarter issue each year. In the September quarter 2007 issue, the new reference year will be 2005-06 for volume estimates. This will have two effects, first, a new base year, 2005-06, will be introduced which results in revisions to growth rates in subsequent periods. Second, the volume estimates will be re-referenced to 2005-06 thus preserving additivity in the quarters after the reference year. Re-referencing affects the levels of, but not the movements in, volume estimates.

INQUIRIES

For further information contact Tom Jebbink on Canberra (02) 6252 5540 for balance of payments estimates, and Scott Jensen on Canberra (02) 6252 5541 for international investment estimates.