AUGUST KEY FIGURES

	June 2007	July 2007	August 2007
	$m	$m	$m
Food and live animals	498	568	655
Beverages and tobacco	87	102	148
Crude materials, inedible, except fuels	187	214	197
Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials	2 086	1 860	2 253
Animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes	33	56	44
Chemicals and related products, nes	1 590	1 750	1 770
Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material	1 643	1 758	1 892
Machinery and transport equipment	6 656	6 164	6 993
Miscellaneous manufactured articles	1 959	2 042	2 180
Commodities and transactions not classified elsewhere in the SITC	674	734	794
TOTAL	15 414	15 247	16 924

AUGUST KEY POINTS


ORIGINAL ESTIMATES

• In original terms, the August 2007 merchandise imports were $16,924m, an increase of $1,677m (11.0%) on the revised July 2007 merchandise imports of $15,247m.

PRELIMINARY BALANCE OF PAYMENTS GOODS IMPORTS

• Preliminary analysis shows that goods imports (debits) on a balance of payments basis increased by 7% in seasonally adjusted terms between July and August 2007.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
September 2007	18 October 2007
October 2007	19 November 2007
November 2007	18 December 2007
December 2007	17 January 2008
January 2008	19 February 2008
February 2008	19 March 2008

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 Details tab of this issue or by contacting the National Information and Referral Service.

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Julia Jaques on Canberra (02) 6252 7042.