MARCH KEY FIGURES

			Dec Qtr 2009	Mar Qtr 2010	Dec Qtr 2009 to Mar Qtr 2010
			$m	$m	% change
BALANCE ON CURRENT ACCOUNT
	Trend estimates		-16 674	-17 631	-6
	Seasonally adjusted		-18 468	-16 551	10
BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES
	Trend estimates		-4 887	-5 553	. .
	Seasonally adjusted		-5 607	-4 618	. .
NET PRIMARY INCOME
	Trend estimates		-11 598	-11 904	-3
	Seasonally adjusted		-12 699	-11 754	7
LEVELS AT END OF PERIOD
	International Investment Position		762 713	757 206	-1
		Net foreign equity	114 280	102 950	-10
		Net foreign debt	648 434	654 256	1
. . not applicable

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 $1,917m (10%) to $16,551m in the March quarter 2010. The deficit on the balance on goods and services fell $989m to $4,618m. The primary income deficit decreased $945m (7%) to $11,754m.
• In seasonally adjusted chain volume terms, the deficit on goods and services increased $1,503m from $6,480m in the December quarter 2009 to $7,983m in the March quarter 2010. This is expected to detract 0.5 percentage points from growth in the March quarter 2010 volume measure of GDP.

INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT POSITION (IIP)

• Australia's net IIP fell $5.5b to a net liability position of $757.2b in the March quarter 2010. Australia's net foreign debt liability increased $5.8b to a liability position of $654.3b. Australia's net foreign equity liability decreased $11.3b to a liability position of $103.0b.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
June 2010	31 August 2010
September 2010	30 November 2010
December 2010	1 March 2011

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:

• decreased the 2008-09 current account deficit by $751m
• decreased the deficit for September quarter 2009 by $977m
• increased the deficit for December quarter 2009 by $1,151m.

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 2007-08 prices.

The financial account and international investment position have been revised back to September quarter 2008, resulting in a decrease of $5,915m in Australia's net IIP liability as at 31 December 2009 to a liability position of $762,713m.

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 (see Changes in this and forthcoming issues):

• Changes in Table 34 Foreign Assets and Liabilities: by Industry
• Changes in Table 35 Selected international accounts ratios.

Changes in forthcoming issues (see Changes in this and forthcoming issues):

• A change to the treatment of the 'Civil aircraft' component from the June 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 Olivia Lam on Canberra (02) 6252 5540 for balance of payments estimates, and Val Tot on Canberra (02) 6252 5541 for international investment estimates.