MAY KEY FIGURES

		Apr 2011	May 2011	Apr 2011 to May 2011
		$m	$m	% change
TREND ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation(a)	13 580	13 589	0.1
	Personal finance	6 799	6 771	-0.4
	Commercial finance	30 868	30 940	0.2
	Lease finance	417	416	-0.1
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation(a)	13 843	14 151	2.2
	Personal finance	6 809	7 071	3.8
	Commercial finance	29 558	32 126	8.7
	Lease finance	434	409	-5.7
(a) Excludes alterations and additions

Personal finance

Commercial finance

MAY KEY POINTS


MAY 2011 COMPARED WITH APRIL 2011:

HOUSING FINANCE FOR OWNER OCCUPATION

• The total value of owner occupied housing commitments excluding alterations and additions rose 0.1% in trend terms and the seasonally adjusted series rose 2.2%.

PERSONAL FINANCE

• The trend series for the value of total personal finance commitments fell 0.4%. Revolving credit commitments fell 1.3%, while fixed lending commitments rose 0.4%.
• The seasonally adjusted series for the value of total personal finance commitments rose 3.8%. Revolving credit commitments rose 6.4% and fixed lending commitments rose 1.7%.

COMMERCIAL FINANCE

• The trend series for the value of total commercial finance commitments rose 0.2%. Revolving credit commitments rose 1.4%, while fixed lending commitments fell 0.3%.
• The seasonally adjusted series for the value of total commercial finance commitments rose 8.7%. Fixed lending commitments rose 9.0%, after an 11.2% fall in the previous month. Revolving credit commitments rose 8.0%.

LEASE FINANCE

• The trend series for the value of total lease finance commitments fell 0.1% and the seasonally adjusted series fell 5.7%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
June 2011	10 August 2011
July 2011	12 September 2011
August 2011	17 October 2011
September 2011	14 November 2011
October 2011	13 December 2011
November 2011	17 January 2012

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:

• Personal finance values for March 2011 and April 2011;
• Lease finance values for April 2011; and
• Owner occupied housing finance values for April 2011.

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

Flooding began in late December 2010 in Queensland, and was more extensive in both Queensland and other states in January 2011. On a month to month basis, original and seasonally adjusted series can be impacted by a number of factors including interest rates, supply constraints, consumer confidence and unusual influences. The specific impact of floods on these estimates can not be quantified.

The trend series provide an estimate of the underlying behavior 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 Steve Sykes on Canberra (02) 6252 6446.