FEBRUARY KEY FIGURES

		Dec 2010	Jan 2011	Feb 2011	Jan 11 to Feb 11
		$m	$m	$m	% change
BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES
	Trend estimates	1 868	1 653	1 390	. .
	Seasonally adjusted	1 778	1 433	-205	. .
CREDITS (Exports of goods & services)
	Trend estimates	24 213	24 111	24 000	-
	Seasonally adjusted	24 508	23 397	22 843	-2
DEBITS (Imports of goods & services)
	Trend estimates	22 345	22 458	22 611	1
	Seasonally adjusted	22 730	21 964	23 048	5
. . not applicable
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

Balance on Goods and Services

FEBRUARY KEY POINTS


BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES

• The trend estimate of the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $1,390m in February 2011, a decrease of $263m on the revised surplus in January 2011.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, the balance on goods and services was a deficit of $205m in February 2011, a turnaround of $1,638m on the revised surplus in January 2011.

CREDITS (EXPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES)

• In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services credits fell $554m (2%) to $22,843m. Non-monetary gold fell $688m (45%) and non-rural goods fell $253m (2%). Rural goods rose $275m (12%) and net exports of goods under merchanting remained steady. Services credits rose $112m (3%).

DEBITS (IMPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES)

• In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services debits rose $1,084m (5%) to $23,048m. Intermediate and other merchandise goods rose $854m (12%), capital goods rose $92m (2%), non-monetary gold rose $53m (19%) and consumption goods rose $11m. Services debits rose $75m (2%).

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
March 2011	10 May 2011
April 2011	2 June 2011
May 2011	5 July 2011
June 2011	3 August 2011
July 2011	8 September 2011
August 2011	4 October 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. In original terms, the revisions have:

• increased the deficit on goods and services for 2009-2010 by $30m
• decreased the surplus on goods and services for the 7 months to January 2011 by $388m.

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.


RELATED PUBLICATIONS

The following publications have recently been released and are detailed in the Related publications section:

• Information paper: Proposed changes to statistical codes in the AHECC, 2012
• Characteristics of Australian Exporters, 2009-10.

IMPACT OF THE FLOODS

The collection and processing of data included in this publication were not disrupted. See the section Impact of the floods for details.


JAPANESE EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI

The earthquake and tsunami events in Japan occurred in March 2011. These events have not impacted the activity in this publication. The ABS expects the economic impact on trade between Australia and Japan to be reflected in forthcoming issues.


INQUIRIES

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