MAY KEY FIGURES
 | March 2007 | April 2007 | May 2007 | Apr 07 to May 07 | |
| $m | $m | $m | % change | |
TREND | |
| |
| Balance on goods and services | -1 075 | -1 042 | -1 023 | . . | |
| Credits (exports of goods & services) | 18 207 | 18 300 | 18 402 | 1 | |
| Debits (imports of goods & services) | 19 282 | 19 342 | 19 425 | - | |
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED | |
| |
| Balance on goods and services | -1 634 | -916 | -807 | . . | |
| Credits (exports of goods & services) | 17 803 | 18 182 | 18 727 | 3 | |
| Debits (imports of goods & services) | 19 436 | 19 097 | 19 534 | 2 | |
| |
| . . not applicable |
| - nil or rounded to zero (including null cells) |
Balance on Goods and Services
| |
MAY KEY POINTS
TREND ESTIMATES
- The provisional trend estimate of the balance on goods and services was a deficit of $1,023m in May 2007, a decrease of $19m on the revised deficit in April.
- Goods and services credits rose $102m (1%) to $18,402m. Goods and services debits rose $83m to $19,425m.
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES
- In seasonally adjusted terms, the balance on goods and services was a deficit of $807m in May, a decrease of $109m on the revised deficit in April.
- Goods and services credits rose $545m (3%) to $18,727m. Non-rural and other goods rose $502m (4%) and rural goods rose $1m. Services credits rose $43m (1%).
- Goods and services debits rose $437m (2%) to $19,534m. Capital goods rose $417m (13%) and intermediate and other goods rose $80m (1%) while consumption goods fell $73m (2%). Services debits rose $13m.
ORIGINAL ESTIMATES
- In original terms, the May 2007 balance on goods and services was a deficit of $654m, an increase of $135m on the revised deficit in April. Goods and services credits rose $864m (5%) and goods and services debits rose $999m (5%).
- In the eleven months to May, exports of non-rural and other goods were up $15.7b (14%) and rural goods were up $0.1b on the corresponding period in 2005-06.
NOTES
FORTHCOMING ISSUES
| ISSUE | Release Date |
| June 2007 | 1 August 2007 |
| July 2007 | 31 August 2007 |
| August 2007 | 3 October 2007 |
| September 2007 | 1 November 2007 |
| October 2007 | 3 December 2007 |
| November 2007 | 10 January 2008 |
REVISIONS
Revisions were made to incorporate the latest available data relating to merchandise trade and administrative data relating to the international trade in services. In original terms, these revisions have:
- increased the deficit on goods and services for April 2007 by $130m
- decreased the deficit on good and services for the 10 months to April 2007 by $61m.
The trend breaks applying to coal, coke and briquettes for April 2004 and April 2005 have been revised in this issue with consequential revisions to the seasonal factors and seasonally adjusted series. The trend break for April 2004 has been revised from $300m to $430m and the trend break for April 2005 from $600m to $819m. These trend breaks relate to the irregular price increases that were identified in April 2004 and 2005 following contractual price increases at those times. The initial trend breaks were estimated by the ABS based on the expected increases but from recent reanalysis combined with the availability of additional monthly original data, these trend break corrections have been improved.
Corresponding trend break revisions to the quarterly coal, coke and briquettes series will be applied to data released in the June quarter 2007 issue of Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia (cat. no. 5302.0) to be released on 30 August 2007.
CHANGES TO FORTHCOMING ISSUES
Commencing with the June issue, goods debits (imports) on a balance of payments basis will use the Customs values (CV) from the merchandise trade data rather than Free on Board values (f.o.b.). The CV is similar to the f.o.b. value except that it includes the revaluation of goods imports by Customs to more closely reflect the market value. Market value measures are the standard required for both Balance of Payments and the System of National Accounts. To align with the National Accounts revision policy, revisions to the balance of payments goods debits data will only be made back to July 2006. These are all upward revisions and range in total from $13m to $19m per month across a number of commodity groups. These revisions will also be applied to data released in the June quarter 2007 issue of Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia (cat. no. 5302.0).
INQUIRIES
For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Tom Jebbink on Canberra (02) 6252 5540.
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