MARCH KEY FIGURES

			Dec Qtr 2010	Mar Qtr 2011	Dec Qtr 2010 to Mar Qtr 2011
			$m	$m	% change
BALANCE ON CURRENT ACCOUNT
	Trend estimates		-7 184	-8 183	-14
	Seasonally adjusted		-8 091	-10 447	-29
BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES
	Trend estimates		6 189	5 862	-5
	Seasonally adjusted		6 366	3 030	-52
NET PRIMARY INCOME
	Trend estimates		-13 084	-13 796	-5
	Seasonally adjusted		-14 164	-13 229	7
LEVELS AT END OF PERIOD
	International Investment Position		774 265	780 570	1
		Net foreign equity	126 755	103 251	-19
		Net foreign debt	647 510	677 320	5

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

International Investment

MARCH KEY POINTS


BALANCE OF PAYMENTS

• The current account deficit, seasonally adjusted, rose $2,356m (29%) to $10,447m in the March quarter 2011. The surplus on the balance of goods and services fell $3,336m (52%) to $3,030m. The primary income deficit fell $935m (7%) to $13,229m.
• In seasonally adjusted chain volume terms, the deficit on goods and services rose $7,781m from $1,308m in the December quarter 2010 to $9,089m in the March quarter 2011. This is expected to detract 2.4 percentage points from growth in the March quarter 2011 volume measure of GDP.

INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT POSITION (IIP)

• Australia's net IIP liability position was $780.6b at 31 March 2011, an increase of $6.3b on 31 December 2010. Australia's net foreign debt liability increased $29.8b to a liability position of $677.3b. Australia's net foreign equity liability decreased $23.5b to a liability position of $103.3b.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
June 2011	6 September 2011
September 2011	6 December 2011
December 2011	6 March 2012

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 2009. In original current price terms, these revisions have:

• decreased the 2009-10 current account deficit by $302m, mainly in the June quarter
• decreased the current account deficit for September quarter 2010 by $449m
• increased the current account deficit for December quarter 2010 by $757m.

The financial account and international investment position have been revised back to September quarter 2009, resulting in a decrease of $7,837m in Australia's net IIP liability as at 31 December 2010 to a liability position of $774,265m.

Seasonally adjusted and trend series have been revised due to the incorporation of revised estimates and the incorporation of estimates for the latest quarter. In seasonally adjusted terms, these revisions increased the volume deficit on goods and services by $836m for the December quarter 2010.


IRON ORE AND COAL PRICES

An adjustment has been made to the value of the 'metal ores and minerals' component in the balance of payments series. See Commodity price adjustment for details.


RELATED RELEASES

Related recent and upcoming releases are detailed in Related releases.


IMPACT OF NATURAL DISASTERS

The collection and processing of data included in this publication were not disrupted by the Australian floods or Japanese earthquake and tsunami. See Impact of natural disasters 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.