16/12/2009 NOTE: Tables 35 and 85 in the Time Series Spreadsheets have been updated with the latest current price original GDP measure from the September 2009 quarterly national accounts.
15/12/2009 NOTE: The Main features was re-issued on 15 December 2009 due to a minor change in the Key points.

SEPTEMBER KEY FIGURES

			Jun Qtr 2009	Sep Qtr 2009	Jun Qtr 2009 to Sep Qtr 2009
			$m	$m	% change
BALANCE ON CURRENT ACCOUNT
	Trend estimates		-11 253	-15 061	-34
	Seasonally adjusted		-13 133	-16 183	-23
BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES
	Trend estimates		-167	-3 724	. .
	Seasonally adjusted		-1 184	-5 409	. .
NET PRIMARY INCOME
	Trend estimates		-10 954	-11 224	-2
	Seasonally adjusted		-11 826	-10 677	10
LEVELS AT END OF PERIOD
	International Investment Position		715 039	752 214	5
		Net foreign equity	80 859	114 690	42
		Net foreign debt	634 180	637 524	1
. . not applicable

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

International Investment

SEPTEMBER KEY POINTS


BALANCE OF PAYMENTS

• The current account deficit, seasonally adjusted, rose $3,050m (23%) to $16,183m in the September quarter 2009. The deficit on the balance on goods and services rose $4,225m to $5,409m. The primary income deficit decreased $1,149m (10%) to $10,677m.
• In seasonally adjusted chain volume terms, there was a turnaround of $4,822m on the June quarter surplus on goods and services, resulting in a deficit of $3,955m. This is expected to detract 1.8 percentage points from growth in the September quarter 2009 volume measure of GDP.

INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT POSITION (IIP)

• Australia's net IIP rose $37.2b to a net liability position of $752.2b in the September quarter 2009. Australia's net foreign debt liability increased $3.3b to a liability position of $637.5b. Australia's net foreign equity liability increased $33.8b to a liability position of $114.7b.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
December 2009	1 March 2010
March 2010	31 May 2010
June 2010	31 August 2010

REVISIONS AND CHANGES TO THIS ISSUE

This issue introduces estimates compiled according to revised international standards, the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position manual, sixth edition (BPM6). This affects a number of key aggregrates and related series. Incorporation of the latest survey and administrative data has resulted in revisions. For further details refer to:

• Information paper: Implementation of new international statistical standards in ABS National and International Accounts (cat no. 5310.0.55.002) released on 28 October 2009, which describes the impact of the new standards on Australia's macro economic accounts including key aggregates for the balance of payments and international investment position.

A new base year, 2007-08 has been introduced into the chain volume estimates. This has resulted in minor revisions to growth rates in subsequent periods. In addition, the chain volume estimates have been re-referenced to 2007-08. Additivity is preserved in the quarters of the reference year and subsequent quarters. Re-referencing affects the levels of, but not movements in, chain volume estimates.

Due to the changes in presentation introduced with this issue, Table 36, Summary of revisions, has not been populated. It will be provided from the next issue.


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.


SELECTED INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTS RATIOS - TABLE 35

Ratios of current account and international investment measures to both annual and annualised (i.e. four quarter moving average ending on the reference quarter) GDP are presented in Table 35. The updated annual GDP benchmarks released concurrently with this issue in the Australian System of National Accounts, 2008-09 (cat. no. 5204.0) have been used in the annual ratios presented in this issue. These benchmarks will be incorporated into the quarterly national accounts with the September quarter 2009 issue of Australian National Accounts: National Income and Expenditure (cat. no. 5206.0) to be released on 16 December 2009. The introduction of these benchmarks will change the level of the quarterly GDP used in the annualised ratios. Therefore, annualised ratios using the currently available quarterly GDP would be inconsistent with the annual ratios and have been suppressed in this issue. Table 35 in the Time Series data released in conjunction with this publication will be updated with the release of the quarterly national accounts.


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.