5302.0 - Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia, Sep 2008  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 02/12/2008   
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Note 03/12/2008: Tables 35 and 85 in the Time Series Spreadsheets have been updated with the latest current price original GDP measure from the September 2008 quarterly national accounts.

SEPTEMBER KEY FIGURES

Jun Qtr 2008
Sep Qtr 2008
Jun Qtr 2008 to Sep Qtr 2008
$m
$m
% change
BALANCE ON CURRENT ACCOUNT
Trend estimates
-11 244
-10 258
9
Seasonally adjusted
-14 043
-9 736
31
BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES
Trend estimates
945
1 498
59
Seasonally adjusted
-1 264
1 432
. .
NET INCOME
Trend estimates
-12 091
-11 661
4
Seasonally adjusted
-12 682
-11 072
13
LEVELS AT END OF PERIOD
International Investment Position
697 520
709 576
2
Net foreign equity
82 877
51 615
-38
Net foreign debt
614 643
657 961
7
. . not applicable

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

International Investment
Graph: International Investment




SEPTEMBER KEY POINTS


BALANCE OF PAYMENTS
  • The current account deficit, seasonally adjusted, fell $4,307m (31%) to $9,736m. The surplus on balance of goods and services of $1,432m was a turnaround of $2,696m on the revised $1,264m deficit for June quarter 2008. The income deficit decreased $1,610m (13%) to $11,072m.
  • In seasonally adjusted chain volume terms there was an increase of $1,088m (11%) in the deficit on goods and services. This is expected to detract 0.4 percentage points from growth in the September quarter 2008 volume measures of GDP.


INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT POSITION (IIP)
  • Australia's net IIP rose $12.1b to a net liability position of $709.6b. Australia's net foreign debt liability increased by $43.3b to a liability of $658.0b. Australia's net foreign equity liability decreased by $31.3b to a liability of $51.6b.


NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER) Release Date
December 2008 3 March 2009
March 2009 2 June 2009



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 2006. In original terms, these revisions have :
  • increased the 2006-07 current account deficit by $639m
  • increased the 2007-08 current account deficit by $1,925m
  • increased the current account deficit for June quarter 2008 by $1,468m.

For the June 2008 quarter, the coal, coke and briquettes component was revised down $593m from $9,849m to $9,256m and the metal ores and minerals component was revised down $613m from $13,573m to $12,960m as more complete information regarding new price contracts and their effects became available. All adjustments have been removed from the coal, coke and briquettes component of the balance of payments series as significant revisions to documents lodged with the Australian Customs Service are not expected for the June quarter. Further investigation of the effect of new price contracts are underway and further revisions to the metal ores and minerals component are possible.

The financial account and international investment position have been revised back to September quarter 2007, resulting in an increase of $5,382m in Australia's net IIP liability as at 30 June 2008 to $697,520m.


CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

Refer to Changes in this issue for details of a number of changes including:
  • revisions to historical goods series to reflect updated correspondence to related classifications
  • introduction of further details for transportation services
  • the treatment of confidential data in goods debits
  • the annual seasonal reanalysis
  • introduction of a new base year and re-referencing for chain volume measures
  • suppression of quarterly ratios in table 35
  • details of changes to time series spreadsheets.


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.