AUGUST KEY FIGURES

	June 2008	July 2008	August 2008
	$m	$m	$m
Food and live animals	592	667	634
Beverages and tobacco	112	116	123
Crude materials, inedible, except fuels	194	277	268
Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials	2 914	3 714	2 831
Animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes	26	47	57
Chemicals and related products, nes	1 829	1 964	1 980
Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material	1 879	2 028	2 051
Machinery and transport equipment	7 934	7 557	7 434
Miscellaneous manufactured articles	1 985	2 266	2 265
Commodities and transactions not classified elsewhere in the SITC	654	966	812
TOTAL	18 119	19 603	18 455

AUGUST KEY POINTS


ORIGINAL ESTIMATES

• In original terms, the August 2008 merchandise imports were $18,455m, a decrease of $1,148m (6%) on the revised July 2008 merchandise imports of $19,603m.

PRELIMINARY BALANCE OF PAYMENTS GOODS IMPORTS

• Preliminary analysis shows that goods imports (debits) on a balance of payments basis decreased by $564m (3%) in seasonally adjusted terms between July and August 2008. Intermediate and other merchandise goods fell $623m (7%) with fuels and lubricants down $887m (25%). Other goods fell $125m (11%) with goods for processing down $158m and Consumption goods fell $52m (1%). Capital goods rose $238m (6%) with civil aircraft up $202m.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
September 2008	20 October 2008
October 2008	18 November 2008
November 2008	17 December 2008
December 2008	19 January 2009
January 2009	18 February 2009
February 2009	19 March 2009

INTRODUCTION

This publication presents statistics of Australia's merchandise imports classified according to the broadest level (1 digit sections) of the United Nations Standard International Trade Classification. The data are compiled from information submitted by importers or their agents to the Australian Customs Service. For more details see International Merchandise Trade, Australia: Concepts, Sources and Methods (cat. no. 5489.0) on the ABS web site. More detailed merchandise imports data are available on the ABS web site www.abs.gov.au from the Downloads tab of this issue or by contacting the National Information and Referral Service.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Selvi Sekhar on Canberra (02) 6252 5540.