APRIL KEY FIGURES

	February 2008	March 2008	April 2008
	$m	$m	$m
Food and live animals	641	579	634
Beverages and tobacco	115	111	116
Crude materials, inedible, except fuels	182	190	196
Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials	2 645	2 834	2 843
Animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes	59	28	38
Chemicals and related products, nes	1 733	1 857	2 080
Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material	1 775	1 643	1 831
Machinery and transport equipment	6 626	7 143	6 922
Miscellaneous manufactured articles	2 208	1 792	2 027
Commodities and transactions not classified elsewhere in the SITC	665	590	772
TOTAL	16 649	16 767	17 458

APRIL KEY POINTS


ORIGINAL ESTIMATES

• In original terms, the April 2008 merchandise imports were $17,458m, an increase of $691m (4%) on the revised March 2008 merchandise imports of $16,767m.

PRELIMINARY BALANCE OF PAYMENTS GOODS IMPORTS

• Preliminary analysis shows that goods imports (debits) on a balance of payments basis decreased by 3% in seasonally adjusted terms between March and April 2008. Capital goods fell $435m (10%) with civil aircraft decreasing by $329m. Consumption goods fell $323m (6%) with non-industrial transport equipment decreasing $206m. Other goods rose $143m (19%) and intermediate and other merchandise goods rose $111m (1%).

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
May 2008	18 June 2008
June 2008	17 July 2008
July 2008	19 August 2008
August 2008	17 September 2008
September 2008	20 October 2008
October 2008	18 November 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 Selvi Sekhar on Canberra (02) 6252 5540.