The ABS will be closed from 12.00pm, 24 December 2024 and will reopen at 9.00am, 2 January 2025. During this time there will be no statistical releases and our support functions will be unavailable. The ABS wishes you a safe and happy Christmas.

Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia

This is not the latest release View the latest release

Balance of payments statistics on current, capital and financial transactions and the international investment position statement

Reference period
December 2021
Released
1/03/2022

Key statistics

  • The current account surplus, seasonally adjusted, fell $9,304m to $12,677m.
  • The capital and financial account deficit fell $8,916m to $6,470m.
  • Australia’s net IIP liability position was $809,396m at 31 December 2021.

Main features

Key figures (a)
 Sep 21 ($m)Dec 21 ($m)
Balance on current account (b)21,98112,677
Balance on goods and services (b)37,40031,001
Net primary income (b)-14,742-17,461
Capital and financial account-15,386-6,470
International investment position (c)878,625809,396

(a) Trend series is not published from June Quarter 2019
(b) Seasonally adjusted
(c) Levels at end of period

(a) Seasonally adjusted estimates at current prices.

COVID-19 in this publication

Changes in this issue

Changes in forthcoming issues

Current Account

Balance on current account in current prices, seasonally adjusted (a) - December quarter 2021
 Sep 21 ($m)Dec 21 ($m)Sep 21 to Dec 21 ($m)
Balance on current account21,98112,677-9,304
Balance on goods and services37,40031,001-6,399
Net goods36,11531,022-5,093
Net Services1,285-20-1,305
Net primary income-14,742-17,461-2,719
Net secondary income-677-862-185

(a) For sign conventions, see the Concepts section in the Explanatory notes in the Methodology.

Terms of trade

Relationship between IPD, EPI and IPI

Balance on goods and services

In seasonally adjusted chain volume terms, the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $11,197m, a fall of $818m on the revised September quarter 2021 surplus of $12,015m.

The fall in the balance on goods and services surplus of $0.8 billion (seasonally adjusted chain volume measure) is expected to detract 0.2 percentage points from the December quarter 2021 GDP quarterly movement. 

(a) Seasonally adjusted, reference year 2019-20.

Exports of goods (credits)

In seasonally adjusted terms at current prices, goods credits fell $948m (1.0%) to $121,541m, with volumes down 1.1% and prices up 0.2%.

Goods credits, price and volume change - seasonally adjusted - December quarter 2021
  Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a) (%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Exports of goods-948-0.8-1.10.3
 Rural goods1,1227.72.94.6
 Non-rural goods-2,711-2.7-2.6-0.1
 Net exports of goods under merchanting3046.293.5-24.6
 Non-monetary gold61010.28.81.4

(a) Reference year 2019-20 = 100
(b) Movements in indexes are based on data to four decimal places

Rural goods

Non-rural goods

Imports of goods (debits)

In seasonally adjusted terms at current prices, goods debits rose $4,145m (4.8%) to $90,519m, with volumes down 0.4% and prices up 5.2%.

Goods debits, price and volume change - seasonally adjusted - December quarter 2021
  Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a) (%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Total Goods Imports4,1454.8-0.45.2
 Consumption goods-123-0.4-2.62.2
 Capital goods-68-0.3-3.93.8
 Intermediate and other merchandise goods4,35612.34.08.0
 Non-monetary gold-20-1.4-2.71.3

(a) Reference year 2019-20 = 100
(b) Movements in indexes are based on data to four decimal places

Consumption goods

Capital goods

Intermediate and other merchandise goods

Services

Services exports, price and volume change - seasonally adjusted - December quarter 2021
  Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a) (%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Exports of services-576-4-51
 Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others-2-22--
 Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.117171
 Transport32412
 Travel-470-9-9-
 Other services-138-2-21

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a) Reference year 2019-20 = 100
(b) Movements in indexes are based on data to four decimal places

Services imports, price and volume change - seasonally adjusted - December quarter 2021
  Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a) (%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Imports of services7295-511
 Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others----
 Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.-7-5-61
 Transport98721-832
 Travel9242401
 Other services-342-4-51

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a) Reference year 2019-20 = 100
(b) Movements in indexes are based on data to four decimal places

Income

The primary income deficit widened by $2,719m to $17,461m in the December quarter 2021.

(a) Trend series is not published from June Quarter 2019

(b) Seasonally adjusted

Primary income credits

In seasonally adjusted terms at current prices, income to residents (credits) rose $1,646m (8.6%) to $20,783m. The main components contributing to this rise were:

  • Direct investment assets - income on equity and investment fund shares; up $151m (1.9%)
  • Portfolio investment assets - investment income on equity and investment fund shares; up $904m (10.5%)
  • Portfolio investment assets - interest; up $544m (45.9%)

Primary income debits

In seasonally adjusted terms at current prices income to non-residents (debits) rose $4,367m (12.9%) to $38,245m. The main components contributing to this rise were:

  • Direct investment liabilities - income on equity and investment fund shares; up $6,740m (37.9%)
  • Portfolio investment liabilities - investment income on equity and investment fund shares; down $3,892m (40.1%)
  • Portfolio investment liabilities - interest; up $1,410m (40%)

Secondary income

In seasonally adjusted terms at current prices, the net secondary income deficit rose $185m to $862m in the December quarter 2021. 

Capital and Financial Account

The capital and financial account recorded a deficit of $6.5b during the December 2021 quarter, mainly driven by the financial account deficit of $6.3b. 

The financial account deficit was due to a net outflow of equity of $30.3b and a net inflow of debt of $24.0b.

 

Capital and financial account
   Mar-21Jun-21Sep-21Dec-21Qtr on Qtr
   ($m)($m)($m)($m)($m)
Capital account-182-260-160-180-20
 Acquisitions/disposals of non-produced non-financial assets6-4250-5
  Acquisitions/disposals of non-produced non-financial assets credits6950-5
  Acquisitions/disposals of non-produced non-financial assets debits0-51000
 Capital transfers-188-218-165-180-15
  Capital transfers credits00000
  Capital transfers debits-188-218-165-180-15
Financial account-17,863-26,582-15,226-6,2908,936
 Direct investment8,4374,824-848116,33624,817
  Direct investment assets5,2903,050-17,048-9,8207,228
  Direct investment liabilities3,1471,7748,56726,15517,588
 Portfolio investment-33,686-33,230-1,954-16,834-14,880
  Portfolio investment assets-12,380-49,454-39,494-60,751-21,257
  Portfolio investment liabilities-21,30616,22537,54043,9166,376
 Financial derivatives1,5122,469217-6,962-7,179
  Financial derivatives assets64,70251,70745,90635,756-10,150
  Financial derivatives liabilities-63,190-49,238-45,689-42,7182,971
 Other investment11,339-1,39912,3702,887-9,483
  Other investment assets-3,262-6,867-23,843-2,99720,846
  Other investment liabilities14,6005,46936,2135,885-30,328
 Reserve assets-5,465754-17,378-1,71715,661
 Net errors and omissions-523-978-4,230-2,4421,788

International Investment Position

Australia's net IIP liability position was $809.4b at 31 December 2021, a decrease of $69.2b on the revised 30 September 2021 figure of $878.6b. Australia's net foreign debt liability position decreased $2.9b to $1,204.9b. Australia's net foreign equity asset position increased $66.3b to $395.5b at 31 December 2021.

International investment position, by net foreign equity and net foreign debt
  Position at beginning of periodTransactionsPrice changesExchange rate changesOther adjustmentsPosition at end of period
  ($m)($m)($m)($m)($m)($m)
Net International Investment PositionJun-21927,038-26,5829,646-15,823-244894,035
Net International Investment PositionSep-21894,035-15,22613,158-14,330988878,625
Net International Investment PositionDec-21878,625-6,290-70,4239,165-1,682809,396
        
Net Foreign EquityJun-21-246,189-29,351319-22,241-68-297,530
Net Foreign EquitySep-21-297,530-19,82115,565-27,725359-329,153
Net Foreign EquityDec-21-329,153-30,327-47,16712,842-1,655-395,459
        
Net Foreign DebtJun-211,173,2272,7699,3276,418-1761,191,565
Net Foreign DebtSep-211,191,5654,596-2,40713,3956291,207,778
Net Foreign DebtDec-211,207,77824,037-23,256-3,677-271,204,855

Supplementary Information

Value adjustments

Revisions

Economic conditions

Data downloads

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 5302.0.

Back to top of the page