MARCH KEY FIGURES

		Feb 2011	Mar 2011	Feb 2011 to Mar 2011
		$m	$m	% change
TREND ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation(a)	13 572	13 335	-1.7
	Personal finance	6 931	6 749	-2.6
	Commercial finance	31 367	31 461	0.3
	Lease finance	418	415	-0.8
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation(a)	13 166	13 019	-1.1
	Personal finance	6 686	6 719	0.5
	Commercial finance	28 888	32 738	13.3
	Lease finance	383	424	10.5
(a) Excludes alterations and additions

Personal finance

Commercial finance

MARCH KEY POINTS


MARCH 2011 COMPARED WITH FEBRUARY 2011:

HOUSING FINANCE FOR OWNER OCCUPATION

• The total value of owner occupied housing commitments excluding alterations and additions fell 1.7% in trend terms and the seasonally adjusted series fell 1.1%.

PERSONAL FINANCE

• The trend series for the value of total personal finance commitments fell 2.6%. Revolving credit commitments fell 3.2% and fixed lending commitments fell 2.1%.
• The seasonally adjusted series for the value of total personal finance commitments rose 0.5%. Fixed lending commitments rose 2.1%, while revolving credit commitments fell 1.2%.

COMMERCIAL FINANCE

• The trend series for the value of total commercial finance commitments rose 0.3%. Fixed lending commitments rose 0.5%, while revolving credit commitments fell 0.2%.
• The seasonally adjusted series for the value of total commercial finance commitments rose 13.3%. Fixed lending commitments rose 17.1% following a 10.0% fall in the previous month. Revolving credit commitments rose 5.3%.

LEASE FINANCE

• The trend series for the value of total lease finance commitments fell 0.8%, while the seasonally adjusted series rose 10.5%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
April 2011	14 June 2011
May 2011	13 July 2011
June 2011	10 August 2011
July 2011	12 September 2011
August 2011	17 October 2011
September 2011	14 November 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 February 2011 data for:

• Commercial finance values;
• Personal finance values; and
• Owner occupied housing finance values.

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. The specific impact of floods, if any, on these estimates can not be quantified. National estimates for personal, commercial and lease finance are seasonally adjusted. The state and territory estimates (available as time series spreadsheets) are not seasonally adjusted.

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 Wolfgang Hertel on Canberra (02) 6252 7883.