MARCH KEY FIGURES

		Jan 2010	Feb 2010	Mar 2010	Feb 10 to Mar 10
		$m	$m	$m	% change
BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES
	Trend estimates	-1 645	-1 724	-1 782	. .
	Seasonally adjusted	-951	-1 701	-2 082	. .
CREDITS (Exports of goods & services)
	Trend estimates	20 072	20 230	20 337	1
	Seasonally adjusted	20 413	20 135	20 441	2
DEBITS (Imports of goods & services)
	Trend estimates	21 717	21 954	22 119	1
	Seasonally adjusted	21 365	21 836	22 524	3
. . 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 deficit of $1,782m in March 2010, an increase of $58m on the revised deficit in February 2010.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, the balance on goods and services was a deficit of $2,082m in March 2010, an increase of $381m on the revised deficit in February 2010.

CREDITS (EXPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES)

• In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services credits rose $306m (2%) to $20,441m. Non-monetary gold rose $308m (34%), rural goods rose $46m (2%) and services credits rose $37m (1%). Non-rural goods fell $86m (1%).

DEBITS (IMPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES)

• In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services debits rose $688m (3%) to $22,524m. Intermediate and other merchandise goods rose $694m (10%), non-monetary gold rose $128m (27%), capital goods rose $64m (2%) and services debits rose $11m. Consumption goods fell $210m (4%).

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
April 2010	3 June 2010
May 2010	6 July 2010
June 2010	4 August 2010
July 2010	2 September 2010
August 2010	5 October 2010
September 2010	4 November 2010

REVISIONS

Table 17 summarises revisions, in original current price terms, since the last issue of this publication, for the last three financial years and last six months.

Revisions have been made to incorporate the latest data relating to merchandise trade and international trade in services. In original terms, these revisions have:

• decreased the deficit on goods and services for February 2010 by $152m
• decreased the deficit on goods and services for the eight months to February 2010 by $285m
• increased the surplus on goods and services for 2008-09 by $71m.

Seasonally adjusted and trend series are revised due to the incorporation of revised estimates, incorporation of estimates for the latest month and the rederivation of seasonal factors under the concurrent seasonal adjustment methodology.


CHANGES IN FORTHCOMING ISSUES

The May 2010 issue of this publication and the June quarter 2010 issue of Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia (cat. no. 5302.0) will introduce a change of treatment for the civil aircraft component. A new component 'Civil aircraft and confidentialised items' will be introduced. It will include Civil aircraft for all periods, and from July 2008 will include all commodities subject to a 'no commodity details' or 'no value details' restriction. This change will affect the statistics presented in Capital goods n.e.s. from December 2008 and Other merchandise goods for July and August 2008, but will not revise the total value of goods debits.

All civil aircraft have been confidentialised since December 2008, and therefore the components making up the 'Civil aircraft and confidentialised items' series will not be available at a lower level on a balance of payments basis.


CHANGES IN TRADE IN SERVICES DATA CUBES

Calendar year trade in services data cubes (cat. no. 5368.0.55.004) previously included Table 9 which provided detailed services data on a calendar year basis. These datacubes are released and therefore updated with revisions once a year. Since the November 2009 issue, this publication presents quarterly detailed services, from which users can compile calendar or financial year data at any point in time, enabling the latest revisions to be included in the estimates. As a result, the previous table 9 will no longer be issued and tables in the calendar year data cubes, due for release on 14 May 2010, will be re-numbered. Tables 10, 11 and 12 will now be released as Tables 9, 10 and 11.


INQUIRIES

For further information contact Olivia Lam on Canberra (02) 6252 7406 for Goods, and Fleur Butt on Canberra (02) 6252 5427 for Services.