JANUARY KEY FIGURES

		Dec 2010	Jan 2011	Dec 2010 to Jan 2011
		$m	$m	% change
TREND ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation(a)	14 311	14 371	0.4
	Personal finance	7 438	7 357	-1.1
	Commercial finance	31 224	31 699	1.5
	Lease finance	432	437	1.2
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation(a)	14 630	13 959	-4.6
	Personal finance	7 619	6 895	-9.5
	Commercial finance	32 827	30 938	-5.8
	Lease finance	439	434	-1.3
(a) Excludes alterations and additions

Personal finance

Commercial finance

JANUARY KEY POINTS


JANUARY 2011 COMPARED WITH DECEMBER 2010:

HOUSING FINANCE FOR OWNER OCCUPATION

• The total value of owner occupied housing commitments excluding alterations and additions rose 0.4% in trend terms, while the seasonally adjusted series fell 4.6%.

PERSONAL FINANCE

• The trend series for the value of total personal finance commitments fell 1.1%. Revolving credit commitments fell 2.1% and fixed lending commitments fell 0.1%.
• The seasonally adjusted series for the value of total personal finance commitments fell 9.5%. Revolving credit commitments fell 14.5% and fixed lending commitments fell 4.5%.

COMMERCIAL FINANCE

• The trend series for the value of total commercial finance commitments rose 1.5%. Revolving credit commitments rose 2.4% and fixed lending commitments rose 1.2%.
• The seasonally adjusted series for the value of total commercial finance commitments fell 5.8%. Revolving credit commitments fell 9.7% and fixed lending commitments fell 4.0%

LEASE FINANCE

• The trend series for the value of total lease finance commitments rose 1.2%, while the seasonally adjusted series fell 1.3%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
February 2011	11 April 2011
March 2011	17 May 2011
April 2011	14 June 2011
May 2011	13 July 2011
June 2011	10 August 2011
July 2011	12 September 2011

REVISIONS

In this issue revisions have been made to the original series as a result of improved reporting of survey and administrative data. These revisions impact on:

• Commercial finance values for December 2010;
• Lease finance values for December 2010;
• Personal finance values for credit used at end of month for December 2010; and
• Owner occupied housing finance values for the period September 2010 to December 2010.

Seasonally adjusted and trend series have been revised as a result of revisions to the original series, the incorporation of estimates for the latest month and the revision of seasonal factors due to the concurrent seasonal adjustment methodology.


IMPACT OF THE FLOODS

Extensive flooding began in late December 2010 in Queensland, and was more extensive in both Queensland and other states in January 2011. The collection and processing of data included in this publication were not disrupted.

On a month to month basis, original and seasonally adjusted series can be impacted by a number of factors including interest rates, consumer confidence and unusual influences. National estimates for personal, commercial and lease finance are seasonally adjusted. In January 2011, in seasonally adjusted terms, the national estimates for the value of personal, commercial and lease finance commitments fell. However, the specific impact of floods, if any, on these estimates can not be quantified. The state and territory estimates (available as time series spreadsheets) are not seasonally adjusted.

The trend series provide an estimate of the underlying behaviour of a series over time but, in the short term, may be distorted by unusual influences impacting on the original and seasonally adjusted estimates. Trend series will be subject to revision in future issues as additional monthly original estimates become available. Users are advised to exercise caution when using the most recent trend estimates. For further information please refer to page 3 of the August 2009 issue of Australian Economic Indicators (cat. no. 1350.0).


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Joe Whelan on Canberra (02) 6252 5747.