SEPTEMBER KEY FIGURES

	July 2008	August 2008	September 2008
	$m	$m	$m
Food and live animals	667	634	747
Beverages and tobacco	116	123	179
Crude materials, inedible, except fuels	277	268	245
Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials	3 725	2 795	3 357
Animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes	47	57	70
Chemicals and related products, nes	1 964	1 981	2 108
Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material	2 028	2 050	2 383
Machinery and transport equipment	7 553	7 430	7 478
Miscellaneous manufactured articles	2 266	2 267	2 904
Commodities and transactions not classified elsewhere in the SITC	966	812	1 505
TOTAL	19 609	18 416	20 975

SEPTEMBER KEY POINTS


ORIGINAL ESTIMATES

• In original terms, the September 2008 merchandise imports were $20,975m, an increase of $2,559m (14%) on the revised August 2008 merchandise imports of $18,416m.

PRELIMINARY BALANCE OF PAYMENTS GOODS IMPORTS

• Preliminary analysis shows that goods imports (debits) on a balance of payments basis increased by $1,569m (8%) in seasonally adjusted terms between August and September 2008. Intermediate and other merchandise goods rose $1,132m (13%) with fuels and lubricants up $547m (20%) and other merchandise goods up $217m. Capital goods rose $206m (5%). Other goods rose $175m (16%) with non monetary gold up $168m (20%). Consumption goods rose $55m (1%).

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
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
March 2009	21 April 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.


CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

The method used in confidentialising data for Imports and Clearances changed for data released from this issue. Data that have the confidentiality restrictions "No commodity details" or "No value details" are aggregated into a single confidential commodity code. For data prior to September 2008, these data are added back into the appropriate state total and country total (i.e. these totals show the correct level of trade). From September 2008 the confidential data are not being added back. Instead it is published as "No country details" in the country totals and "State not available for publication" in the state totals. Therefore, country and state totals from September 2008 do not represent the actual amount of trade but only the trade without "No commodity details" or "No value details" restrictions. This change ensures the confidentiality of data is not breached. Refer to the CCL attachment 1 (Appendix) for more details about these restrictions.

As a result of this new confidentiality arrangement, a new series has been created - State not available for publication with Series ID A2529326T which appears in time series spreadsheets 5 and 6. The No country details item is an existing series.


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.