MAY KEY FIGURES

		Mar 2010	Apr 2010	May 2010	Apr 10 to May 10
		$m	$m	$m	% change
BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES
	Trend estimates	-1 296	1 287	1 306	. .
	Seasonally adjusted	-1 769	1 123	1 645	. .
CREDITS (Exports of goods & services)
	Trend estimates	20 829	23 576	23 926	1
	Seasonally adjusted	20 528	23 328	24 725	6
DEBITS (Imports of goods & services)
	Trend estimates	22 125	22 289	22 619	1
	Seasonally adjusted	22 297	22 205	23 080	4
. . not applicable

Balance on Goods and Services

MAY KEY POINTS


BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES

• The trend estimate of the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $1,306m in May 2010, an increase of $19m on the revised surplus in April 2010.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $1,645m in May 2010, an increase of $522m on the revised surplus in April 2010.

CREDITS (EXPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES)

• In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services credits rose $1,397m (6%) to $24,725m. Non-monetary gold rose $772m (66%), non-rural goods rose $385m (2%), rural goods rose $235m (11%) and services credits rose $5m.

DEBITS (IMPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES)

• In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services debits rose $875m (4%) to $23,080m. Capital goods rose $408m (10%), consumption goods rose $214m (4%), intermediate and other merchandise goods rose $182m (2%) and services debits rose $108m (2%). Non-monetary gold fell $36m (4%).

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
June 2010	4 August 2010
July 2010	2 September 2010
August 2010	5 October 2010
September 2010	4 November 2010
October 2010	2 December 2010
November 2010	11 January 2011

REVISIONS

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.

Revisions have been made to incorporate the latest data relating to merchandise trade and international trade in services. In original terms, these revisions have:

• increased the surplus on goods and services for April 2010 by $865m
• increased the surplus on goods and services for 2008-09 by $94m
• decreased the deficit on goods and services for the 10 months to April 2010 by $2,403m.

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

Adjustments have been made to the value of the 'metal ores and minerals' and the 'coal, coke and briquettes' components in the balance of payments series. See the Commodity prices adjustment for details.


CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

As advised in the previous issue, this issue introduces a change of treatment for the civil aircraft component. A new component 'Civil aircraft and confidentialised items' includes civil aircraft for all periods and from July 2008 includes all commodities subject to a 'no commodity details' or 'no value details' restriction. This change affects the statistics presented in Capital goods n.e.s. from December 2008 and Other merchandise goods for July and August 2008, but the change does not revise the total value of goods debits. This change will be reflected in the June quarter 2010 issue of Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia (cat. no. 5302.0).

All civil aircraft have been confidentialised since December 2008, and therefore the components making up the 'Civil aircraft and confidentialised items' series will not be available at a lower level on a balance of payments basis.


INQUIRIES

For further information contact Selvi Sekhar on Canberra (02) 6252 5540 for Goods, and Andrew Tomadini on Canberra (02) 6252 7094 for Services.