The ABS will be closed from 12.00pm, 24 December 2024 and will reopen at 9.00am, 2 January 2025. During this time there will be no statistical releases and our support functions will be unavailable. The ABS wishes you a safe and happy Christmas.

Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia

Latest release

Balance of payments statistics on current, capital and financial transactions and the international investment position statement

Reference period
September 2024
Released
3/12/2024
  • Next Release 4/03/2025
    Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia, December 2024
  • Next Release 3/06/2025
    Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia, March 2025
  • Next Release 2/09/2025
    Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia, June 2025
  • View all releases

Key statistics

  • The current account balance, seasonally adjusted, rose $2,202m to a deficit of $14,149m.
  • The capital and financial account surplus was $20,084m, an increase of $2,658m on the June quarter 2024 surplus. 
  • The net international investment liability position was $716,547m at 30 September 2024.

International accounts overview

Key figures ($m)
 Jun 24Sep 24
Balance on current account (a)-16,351-14,149
Balance on goods and services (a)6,5193,250
Net primary income (a)-22,824-17,317
Capital and financial account17,42620,084
International investment position (b)695,922716,547
  1. Seasonally adjusted estimates in current price terms.
  2. Levels at end of period.

The current account balance (seasonally adjusted, current price) for September quarter 2024 was a deficit of $14.1b. This was an increase of $2.2b, from the revised June quarter 2024 current account deficit of $16.4b.

The current account deficit for September quarter 2024 reflects a decrease on the balance of goods and services trade surplus, combined with the decrease in the net primary income deficit.

The balance on goods and services in seasonally adjusted chain volume terms is expected to contribute 0.1 percentage points to the September quarter 2024 GDP quarterly movement. 

The terms of trade decreased 2.5% to 89.2, down from 91.5 in June quarter 2024. 

The net primary income deficit decreased to $17.3b, following the $22.8b deficit in June quarter 2024.

  1. Seasonally adjusted estimates in current price terms.

Australia's net international investment liability position was $716.5b at 30 September 2024, an increase of $20.6b on the revised June quarter 2024 position of $695.9b.

Changes in this issue

Current Account

Balance on current account, current price, seasonally adjusted ($m)
 Jun 24Sep 24Jun 24 to Sep 24
Balance on current account-16,351-14,1492,202
Balance on goods and services6,5193,250-3,269
Net goods15,51415,077-437
Net Services-8,995-11,827-2,832
Net primary income-22,824-17,3175,507
Net secondary income-47-81-34

Terms of trade

Relationship between IPD, EPI and IPI

Balance on goods and services

In seasonally adjusted chain volume terms, the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $22,593m, a rise of $781m on the revised June quarter 2024 surplus of $21,812m.

  1. Seasonally adjusted, reference year 2022-23=100.

Exports of goods (credits)

In seasonally adjusted current price terms, goods credits fell $2,893m (-2.3%) to $125,679m, with volumes up 0.9% and prices down 3.2%.

 

Goods credits, price and volume change, seasonally adjusted - September quarter 2024
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Exports of goods-2,893-2.30.9-3.2
 Rural goods2871.80.61.1
 Non-rural goods-2,885-2.81.5-4.2
 Net exports of goods under merchanting2132.342.5-7.1
 Non-monetary gold(c)-317-3.5-7.64.4
  1. Reference year 2022-23=100.
  2. Movements in indexes are calculated from unrounded data.
  3. This component is not seasonally adjusted.

Rural goods

Non-rural goods

Imports of goods (debits)

In seasonally adjusted current price terms, goods debits fell $2,456m (-2.2%) to $110,602m, with volumes down 1.5% and prices down 0.7%. 

Goods debits, price and volume change, seasonally adjusted - September quarter 2024
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Total Goods Imports-2,456-2.2-1.5-0.7
 Consumption goods-1,362-3.7-4.20.5
 Capital goods2561.01.6-0.7
 Intermediate and other merchandise goods-1,753-3.7-1.7-2.0
 Non-monetary gold(c)40318.813.94.3
  1. Reference year 2022-23=100.
  2. Movements in indexes are calculated from unrounded data.
  3. This component is not seasonally adjusted.

Consumption goods

Capital goods

Intermediate and other merchandise goods

Services

Services exports, price and volume change, seasonally adjusted - September quarter 2024
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Exports of services-965-3.0-3.60.6
 Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others----
 Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.111.19.51.5
 Transport-8-0.4-0.60.2
 Travel-822-4.1-4.40.3
 Other services-137-1.4-2.81.5

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

  1. Reference year 2022-23=100.
  2. Movements in indexes are calculated from unrounded data.
Services imports, price and volume change, seasonally adjusted - September quarter 2024
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Imports of services1,8674.63.01.6
 Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others----
 Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.3318.920.3-1.2
 Transport1191.80.31.5
 Travel1,98111.79.91.6
 Other services-266-1.6-2.51.0

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

  1. Reference year 2022-23=100.
  2. Movements in indexes are calculated from unrounded data.

Income

Net primary income deficit decreased by $5,507m to $17,317m in the September quarter 2024. 

  1.  Seasonally adjusted estimates in current price terms.

Primary income credits

Primary income credits, in seasonally adjusted, current price terms rose $1,572m (5.9%). The key components contributing to the increase were:

  • Portfolio investment assets - income on equity and investment fund shares; up $1,083m (11.9%)
  • Direct investment assets - income on equity and investment fund shares; up $933m (10.7%)

Partly offset by:

  • Portfolio investment assets - interest; down $706m (-13.2%)

Primary income debits

Primary income debits, in seasonally adjusted, current price terms fell $3,935m (-8.0%). The key components contributing to the decrease were:

  • Portfolio investment liabilities - income on equity and investment fund shares; down $2,337m (-24.8%)
  • Direct investment liabilities - income on equity and investment fund shares; down $1,308m (-7.5%)
  • Portfolio investment liabilities - interest; down 1,068m (-7.2%)

Partly offset by:

  • Other investment liabilities; up $755m (24.0%)

Secondary income

In current price seasonally adjusted terms, the net secondary income deficit rose $34m to $81m.

Secondary income credits rose $7m (0.2%) while debits rose $41m (1.1%) in the September quarter 2024. 

Capital and Financial Account

The capital and financial account recorded a surplus of $20.1b during the September 2024 quarter, driven by the financial account surplus of $20.2b.

The financial account recorded a surplus due to a $27.2b net outflow of equity and a $47.4b net inflow of debt.

Capital and financial account ($m)
 Dec 23Mar 24Jun 24Sep 24Jun 24 to
Sep 24
Capital account-12997-107-164-57
 Acquisitions/disposals of non-produced non-financial assets1232507-43
  Acquisitions/disposals of non-produced non-financial assets credits4233677-60
  Acquisitions/disposals of non-produced non-financial assets debits-3-1-17-17
 Capital transfers-130-135-157-171-14
  Capital transfers credits-----
  Capital transfers debits-130-135-157-171-14
Financial account-6,3494,05517,53320,2482,715
 Direct investment25,17418,44718,98222,3283,346
  Direct investment assets-1,913-8,2767,068-4,128-11,196
  Direct investment liabilities27,08726,72311,91426,45714,543
 Portfolio investment7,188-3,71853,712-21,758-75,470
  Portfolio investment assets-43,879-39,357-9,807-57,219-47,412
  Portfolio investment liabilities51,06735,63963,51935,460-28,059
 Financial derivatives-29,136-4,677-35,215-7,41227,803
  Financial derivatives assets156,181160,463168,961170,7791,818
  Financial derivatives liabilities-185,317-165,140-204,176-178,19125,985
 Other investment-9,817-3,770-18,21427,56845,782
  Other investment assets10,8538,492-28,96618,62547,591
  Other investment liabilities-20,671-12,26210,7528,943-1,809
 Reserve assets242-2,227-1,732-4771,255
Net errors and omissions4,1824,755-5,9352,7778,712

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

International Investment Position

Australia's international investment liability position was $716.5b at 30 September 2024, an increase of $20.6b on the revised 30 June 2024 figure of $695.9b. Australia's net foreign equity asset position increased $35.9b to $586.3b and Australia's net foreign debt liability position increased $56.6b to $1,302.9b.

International investment position, by net foreign equity and net foreign debt ($m)
 Position at beginning of periodTransactionsPrice changesExchange rate changesOther adjustmentsPosition at end of period
Net International Investment PositionMar‑24819,4984,055-86,344-13,490-14,013709,706
Jun‑24709,70617,533-57,82432,115-5,608695,922
Sep‑24695,92220,2486,7192,455-8,798716,547
Net Foreign EquityMar‑24-384,14718,899-83,854-47,249-18,905-515,257
Jun‑24-515,2571,657-64,20135,414-8,018-550,405
Sep‑24-550,405-27,160-17,45419,581-10,900-586,337
Net Foreign DebtMar‑241,203,645-14,844-2,49033,7594,8921,224,963
Jun‑241,224,96315,8766,377-3,2982,4101,246,327
Sep‑241,246,32747,40924,173-17,1272,1021,302,884

Data downloads

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

Supplementary Information

Value adjustments

Revisions

Economic conditions

COVID-19 in this publication

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 5302.0.

Post release changes

04/12/2024 Note: Updates to selected international accounts ratios: Table 23

Ratios of current account and international investment measures to quarterly GDP and GNI are normally presented in Table 23.

As advised on 3 December 2024, Table 23 in the 'Data downloads' was initially supressed. This data is now available in conjunction with the release of the September quarter 2024 issue of Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product.

06/12/204: Table 19 has been updated. Quarter on quarter movement data in the Capital and Financial Account table has been updated. 

Back to top of the page