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APRIL KEY FIGURES

	February 2011	March 2011	April 2011
	$m	$m	$m
Food and live animals	687	740	684
Beverages and tobacco	101	142	144
Crude materials, inedible, except fuels	152	250	187
Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials	2 811	3 435	3 355
Animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes	47	39	47
Chemicals and related products, nes	1 806	2 279	2 017
Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material	1 935	1 830	1 778
Machinery and transport equipment	5 783	6 934	5 983
Miscellaneous manufactured articles	2 169	2 135	2 095
Commodities and transactions not classified elsewhere in the SITC	1 107	735	1 133
TOTAL	16 599	18 518	17 423

• In original terms, the April 2011 merchandise imports were $17,423m, a decrease of $1,095m (6%) on the revised March 2011 merchandise imports of $18,518m.

• Preliminary analysis shows that goods debits (imports) on a balance of payments basis in original terms decreased $1,143m (6%) between March and April 2011. In seasonally adjusted terms goods debits increased $175m (1%) from $18,557m in March 2011 to $18,732m in April 2011. Capital goods rose $489m (12%) with the civil aircraft and other confidentialised items component up $432m. Consumption goods fell $159m (3%) with the non-industrial transport equipment component down $426m (31%), intermediate and other merchandise goods fell $123m (1%) and non-monetary gold fell $32m (8%).

• The March quarter 2011 issue of Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia (cat. no. 5302.0) and the April 2011 issue of International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia (cat. no. 5368.0) will include goods debits estimates that have been revised since the March 2011 issue of International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia (cat. no. 5368.0) which was released on 10 May 2011. The level of capital goods n.e.s. for goods debits will be increased by approximately $500m in both the December 2010 and March 2011 quarters in original terms. These revisions reflect information recently obtained.

Preliminary analysis shows that, in seasonally adjusted terms, the revised goods imports volumes remains stable at 0.8% and the implicit price deflator also remains stable at 0.9% during the March quarter 2011.

• The earthquake and tsunami events in Japan occurred on 11 March 2011 but the specific impact of these events on these estimates cannot be quantified. Between March and April 2011 merchandise imports from Japan fell $711m (48%) in original terms, primarily driven by a large fall in the non-industrial transport equipment component, down $494m (81%).