MARCH KEY FIGURES

		Jan 2011	Feb 2011	Mar 2011	Feb 11 to Mar 11
		$m	$m	$m	% change
BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES
	Trend estimates	1 916	1 794	1 729	. .
	Seasonally adjusted	1 550	-87	1 740	. .
CREDITS (Exports of goods & services)
	Trend estimates	24 453	24 539	24 663	1
	Seasonally adjusted	23 505	22 885	24 991	9
DEBITS (Imports of goods & services)
	Trend estimates	22 537	22 746	22 935	1
	Seasonally adjusted	21 955	22 973	23 251	1
. . not applicable

Balance on Goods and Services

MARCH KEY POINTS


BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES

• The trend estimate of the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $1,729m in March 2011, a decrease of $65m on the revised surplus in February 2011.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $1,740m in March 2011, a turnaround of $1,827m on the revised deficit in February 2011.

CREDITS (EXPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES)

• In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services credits rose $2,106m (9%) to $24,991m. Non-rural goods rose $1,629m (11%) and non-monetary gold rose $503m (59%). Rural goods fell $60m (2%) and net exports of goods under merchanting remained steady at $26m. Services credits rose $33m (1%).

DEBITS (IMPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES)

• In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services debits rose $278m (1%) to $23,251m. Intermediate and other merchandise goods rose $623m (8%) and non-monetary gold rose $84m (25%). Capital goods fell $350m (8%) and consumption goods fell $66m (1%). Services debits fell $13m.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
April 2011	2 June 2011
May 2011	5 July 2011
June 2011	3 August 2011
July 2011	8 September 2011
August 2011	4 October 2011
September 2011	8 November 2011

REVISIONS

Revisions have been made to incorporate the latest data relating to international merchandise trade and international trade in services. The international trade in goods and services on a balance of payments basis series have been revised from July 2009 onwards.

Table 17 summarises revisions to goods and services on a balance of payments basis, in original current price terms, since the last issue of this publication. In original terms, the revisions have:

• decreased the deficit on goods and services for 2009-2010 by $462m
• increased the surplus on goods and services for the 8 months to February 2011 by $512m.

Seasonally adjusted and trend series have been revised due to the incorporation of the revisions and estimates for the latest month.


IRON ORE AND COAL PRICES

An adjustment has been made to the value of the 'metal ores and minerals' component in the balance of payments series. See the section Commodity prices adjustment for details.


CHANGES IN FORTHCOMING ISSUES

To comply with current naming conventions, the April 2011 issue of this publication will change the description of 'Myanmar' to 'Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar)'. This change will be included in time series spreadsheet tables 14a, 14b, 36a to 36j and 37a to 37h. This change will be included in the country data for the complete merchandise trade time series (i.e. data from January 1988) and the ordering of countries will be affected for all country tables.


RELATED RELEASES

Three upcoming releases are detailed in the Related releases section.


IMPACT OF NATURAL DISASTERS

The collection and processing of data included in this publication were not disrupted by the Australian Floods or Japanese earthquake and tsunami. See the section Impact of natural disasters for details.


INQUIRIES

For further information contact Selvi Sekhar on Canberra (02) 6252 5540 for Goods, and Lee Taylor on Canberra (02) 6252 6377 for Services.