NOVEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Sep 2010	Oct 2010	Nov 2010	Oct 10 to Nov 10
		$m	$m	$m	% change
BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES
	Trend estimates	2 350	2 311	2 241	. .
	Seasonally adjusted	2 024	2 561	1 925	. .
CREDITS (Exports of goods & services)
	Trend estimates	24 766	24 586	24 378	-1
	Seasonally adjusted	24 305	24 447	24 440	-
DEBITS (Imports of goods & services)
	Trend estimates	22 416	22 275	22 136	-1
	Seasonally adjusted	22 281	21 886	22 515	3
. . not applicable
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

Balance on Goods and Services

NOVEMBER KEY POINTS


BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES

• The trend estimate of the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $2,241m in November 2010, a decrease of $70m on the surplus in October 2010.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $1,925m in November 2010, a decrease of $636m on the surplus in October 2010.

CREDITS (EXPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES)

• In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services credits fell $7m to $24,440m. Non-rural goods rose $360m (2%), rural goods rose $24m (1%) and non-monetary gold fell $325m (21%). Services credits fell $66m (1%).

DEBITS (IMPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES)

• In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services debits rose $629m (3%) to $22,515m. Capital goods rose $314m (8%), intermediate and other merchandise goods rose $260m (4%) and consumption goods rose $52m (1%). Non-monetary gold fell $14m (2%). Services debits rose $16m.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
December 2010	3 February 2011
January 2011	3 March 2011
February 2011	5 April 2011
March 2011	10 May 2011
April 2011	2 June 2011
May 2011	5 July 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, for the last three financial years and six months. In original terms, the revisions have:

• increased the deficit on goods and services for 2009-2010 by $120m
• decreased the surplus on goods and services for the four months to October 2010 by $173m.

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.


CONCEPTS, SOURCES AND METHODS PUBLICATION

The next issue of Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia: Concepts, Sources and Methods - 2011 (cat. no. 5331.0), is scheduled to be released on 8 March 2011. This issue will describe the concepts, sources and methods used to compile the balance of payments statistics in this publication which are on a Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, Sixth Edition (BPM6) basis.


CHANGES IN FORTHCOMING ISSUES

Country group

The December 2010 issue of this publication will introduce changes to the OECD country group for merchandise trade series with both Israel and Estonia now included as members. Israel and Estonia will be included from the December 2010 reference month in the OECD data in table 14 of this publication and time series spreadsheet tables 14a, 14b, 36a to 36j and 37a to 37h. Both countries will be included in the OECD data for the complete merchandise trade time series (i.e. date from January 1988). The treatment in the annual international trade in services country data cubes will be revised when they are released.


INQUIRIES

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