AUGUST KEY FIGURES

		Jun 2010	Jul 2010	Aug 2010	Jul 10 to Aug 10
		$m	$m	$m	% change
BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES
	Trend estimates	2 253	2 404	2 549	. .
	Seasonally adjusted	3 620	1 743	2 346	. .
CREDITS (Exports of goods & services)
	Trend estimates	25 192	25 508	25 703	1
	Seasonally adjusted	26 716	25 319	24 711	-2
DEBITS (Imports of goods & services)
	Trend estimates	22 939	23 104	23 154	-
	Seasonally adjusted	23 096	23 576	22 365	-5
. . not applicable
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

Balance on Goods and Services

AUGUST KEY POINTS


BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES

• The trend estimate of the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $2,549m in August 2010, an increase of $145m on the revised surplus in July 2010.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $2,346m in August 2010, an increase of $603m on the revised surplus in July 2010.

CREDITS (EXPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES)

• In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services credits fell $608m (2%) to $24,711m. Non-monetary gold fell $401m (32%), non-rural goods fell $145m (1%) and rural goods fell $85m (3%). Services credits rose $23m (1%).

DEBITS (IMPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES)

• In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services debits fell $1,211m (5%) to $22,365m. Intermediate and other merchandise goods fell $1,052m (12%), capital goods fell $127m (3%) and non-monetary gold fell $78m (22%). Consumption goods rose $42m (1%). Services debits rose $4m.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
September 2010	4 November 2010
October 2010	2 December 2010
November 2010	11 January 2011
December 2010	3 February 2011
January 2011	3 March 2011
February 2011	5 April 2011

REVISIONS

Revisions have been made to incorporate the latest data relating to international merchandise trade and international trade in services.

Table 17 summarises revisions to goods and services on a balance of payments basis, in original current price terms, since the last issue of this publication, for the last three financial years and last six months. In original terms, the revisions have:

• decreased the surplus on goods and services for July 2010 by $139m
• decreased the deficit on goods and services for 2009-10 by $814m.

Seasonally adjusted and trend series have been revised due to the incorporation of revised estimates, the incorporation of estimates for the latest month and the rederivation of seasonal factors under the concurrent seasonal adjustment methodology.


IRON ORE AND COAL PRICES

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


CHANGES IN FORTHCOMING ISSUES

Country group

The September 2010 issue of this publication will introduce changes to the OECD country group with Chile and Slovenia now included as members. These countries will be included from the September 2010 reference month in the OECD data in Table 14 of this publication and time series spreadsheet tables 14a,14b, 36a to 36j and 37a to 37h. These countries will be included in the OECD data for the complete merchandise trade time series (ie. date from January 1988).

Seasonally adjusted and trend estimates

The seasonally adjusted and trend estimates of goods and services will be revised in the September 2010 issue as a result of the annual seasonal re-analysis. This re-analysis reviews the seasonal and trading day factors in more detail than is possible in the quarterly processing cycle and assesses the appropriateness of any prior corrections.


INQUIRIES

For further information contact Selvi Sekhar on Canberra (02) 6252 5540 for Goods, and Lee Taylor on Canberra (02) 6252 6377 for Services.