5302.0 - Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia, March 2012 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 05/06/2012   
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MARCH KEY FIGURES

Dec Qtr 2011
Mar Qtr 2012
Dec Qtr 2011 to Mar Qtr 2012
$m
$m
% change
BALANCE ON CURRENT ACCOUNT
Trend estimates
-9 968
-13 172
-32
Seasonally adjusted
-9 639
-14 892
-55
BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES
Trend estimates
1 904
-1 388
. .
Seasonally adjusted
2 254
-3 062
. .
NET PRIMARY INCOME
Trend estimates
-11 719
-11 623
1
Seasonally adjusted
-11 740
-11 668
1
LEVELS AT END OF PERIOD
International Investment Position
856 440
880 213
3
Net foreign equity
121 291
138 099
14
Net foreign debt
735 148
742 114
1
. . not applicable

Current Account Balance (a), Main aggregates
Graph: Current Account Balance (a), Main aggregates

International Investment
Graph: International Investment




MARCH KEY POINTS


BALANCE OF PAYMENTS
  • The current account deficit, seasonally adjusted, rose $5,253m (55%) to $14,892m in the March quarter 2012. There was a turnaround of $5,316m on the balance of goods and services, resulting in a deficit of $3,062m in the March quarter 2012. The primary income deficit fell $72m (1%) to $11,668m.
  • In seasonally adjusted chain volume terms, the deficit on goods and services rose $1,816m (14%) from $12,819m in the December quarter 2011 to $14,635m in the March quarter 2012. This is expected to detract 0.5 percentage points from growth in the March quarter 2012 volume measure of GDP.


INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT POSITION (IIP)
  • Australia's net IIP liability position was $880.2b at 31 March 2012, an increase of $23.8b on 31 December 2011. Australia's net foreign debt liability increased $7.0b to a liability position of $742.1b. Australia's net foreign equity liability increased $16.8b to a liability position of $138.1b.


NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER) Release Date
June 2012 4 September 2012
September 2012 4 December 2012
December 2012 5 March 2013
March 2013 4 June 2013



REVISIONS

In original terms, data have been revised back to September quarter 2010.

The 'capital goods' of the goods debits series has been revised from July 2010 onwards since the release of the March 2012 issue of International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia (cat. no. 5368.0). The revised goods debits data aligns with the data to be published in the March quarter 2012 issue of Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product (cat. no. 5206.0) to be released on 6 June 2012.

See Revisions for details.


CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

An improvement to the seasonal adjustment methodology of the current price value of coal, coke and briquettes component has been introduced from September quarter 2005 onwards. Previously the coal, coke and briquettes component had only a length-of-quarter adjustment applied, from September quarter 2005, this component is independently seasonally adjusted. This change in methodology will be closely monitored as part of our ongoing improvement program.


COMMODITY VALUE ADJUSTMENTS

Iron ore and coal
  • no adjustment has been made to the 'metal ores and minerals' component for March quarter 2012. All previous adjustments have been removed
  • a negative adjustment of $60m has been applied to the 'coal, coke and briquettes' component for March quarter 2012.

Capital expenditure
  • the balance of payments goods debits component 'capital goods n.e.s.' includes an estimate of expenditure on capital goods that have changed ownership but have not yet crossed the customs frontier.


RELATED RELEASES

For related recent and upcoming releases see Related releases for details.


INQUIRIES

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