Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia

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

Reference period
December 2022
Released
28/02/2023

Key statistics

  • The current account balance, seasonally adjusted, rose $13,361m to a surplus of $14,114m.
  • The capital and financial account deficit was $10,067m, a turnaround of $23,057m on the September quarter 2022 surplus.
  • The net international investment liability position was $856,794m at 31 December 2022.

International accounts overview

Key figures ($m)
 Sep 22Dec 22
Balance on current account (a)75314,114
Balance on goods and services (a)31,45340,903
Net primary income (a)-30,401-26,407
Capital and financial account12,990-10,067
International investment position (b)859,901856,794

a. Seasonally adjusted estimates at current prices.
b. Levels at end of period

The current account balance (seasonally adjusted current price) for December quarter 2022 was a surplus of $14.1b. The current account balance increased $13.4b from the revised September quarter 2022 surplus of $0.8b.

The increase in the current account reflected a rise in the trade surplus and a decline in the net primary income deficit.

The balance on goods and services in seasonally adjusted chain volume terms is expected to contribute 1.1 percentage points to the December quarter 2022 GDP quarterly movement, assuming no significant revision to September quarter 2022 estimates of GDP.

The terms of trade increased 0.6% to 111.7, up from 111.1 in September quarter 2022.  

The net primary income deficit fell to $26.4b, following the record high deficit of $30.4b in September quarter 2022.

Australia's net international investment liability position was $856.8b at December quarter 2022, a decrease of $3.1b on the revised September quarter 2022 position of $859.9b.

 

Annual seasonal re-analysis

The seasonally adjusted and trend estimates of goods, services, primary income and secondary income will be revised in the March quarter 2023 issue of this publication as a result of the annual seasonal re-analysis. This re-analysis reviews the seasonal and trading day factors in more detail than is possible in the quarterly processing cycle and assesses the appropriateness of any prior corrections. The suspension of trend estimates and use of the forward factor method for series with significant and prolonged impacts from COVID-19 will also be reviewed as part of this process.

  1. Seasonally adjusted estimates at current prices.

Current Account

Balance on current account, current price, seasonally adjusted ($m)
 Sep 22Dec 22Sep 22 to Dec 22
Balance on current account75314,11413,361
Balance on goods and services31,45340,9039,450
Net goods39,26644,6265,360
Net Services-7,813-3,7234,090
Net primary income-30,401-26,4073,994
Net secondary income-299-382-83

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 $17,245m, an increase of $6,066m on the revised September quarter 2022 surplus of $11,179m.

The rise in the balance on goods and services surplus of $6.1 billion (seasonally adjusted chain volume measure) is expected to contribute 1.1 percentage points to the December quarter 2022 GDP quarterly movement. 

  1. Seasonally adjusted, reference year 2020-21=100.

Exports of goods (credits)

In seasonally adjusted terms at current prices, goods credits rose $2,832m (1.9%) to $155,116m, with volumes down 0.5% and prices up 2.4%.

 

Goods credits, price and volume change, seasonally adjusted - December quarter 2022
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Exports of goods2,8321.9-0.52.4
 Rural goods860.4-3.54.1
 Non-rural goods4,3643.52.31.1
 Net exports of goods under merchanting-102-102.0-102.00.4
 Non-monetary gold(c)-1,517-20.5-23.74.3

a. Reference year 2020-21=100.
b. Movements are calculated from unrounded data.
c. This component is not seasonally adjusted.

Rural goods

Non-rural goods

Imports of goods (debits)

In seasonally adjusted terms at current prices, goods debits fell $2,529m (2.2%) to $110,489m, with volumes down 3.8% and prices up 1.6%. 

Goods debits, price and volume change, seasonally adjusted - December quarter 22
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Total Goods Imports-2,529-2.2-3.81.6
 Consumption goods-237-0.7-3.02.4
 Capital goods-417-1.6-5.33.8
 Intermediate and other merchandise goods-1,474-2.9-2.4-0.5
 Non-monetary gold(c)-400-21.8-24.94.1

a. Reference year 2020-21=100.
b. Movements are calculated from unrounded data.
c. This component is not seasonally adjusted.

Consumption goods

Capital goods

Intermediate and other merchandise goods

Services

Services credits, price and volume change, seasonally adjusted - December quarter 2022
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Exports of services2,25311.49.81.5
 Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others----
 Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.11110.0107.91.0
 Transport(c)36524.820.63.5
 Travel(c)1,89620.318.91.2
 Other services-17-0.2-1.51.3

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
a. Reference year 2020-21=100.
b. Movements are calculated from unrounded data.
c. This component has been seasonally adjusted using the forward factor method since March 2020 due to the impacts of COVID-19. 

Services debits, price and volume change, seasonally adjusted - December quarter 2022
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Imports of services-1,837-6.7-6.5-0.2
 Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others----
 Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.2318.516.71.6
 Transport(c)-1,450-15.0-11.1-4.4
 Travel(c)-154-2.0-6.24.5
 Other services-255-2.6-4.52.1

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
a. Reference year 2020-21=100.
b. Movements are calculated from unrounded data.
c. This component has been seasonally adjusted using the forward factor method since March 2020 due to the impacts of COVID-19. 

Income

Net primary income deficit remained elevated, narrowing to $26,407m in the December quarter 2022. 

  1.  Seasonally adjusted estimates at current prices.

Primary income credits

In seasonally adjusted terms at current prices, income to residents (credits) rose $2,470m (10.9%) to $25,165m. The main components contributing to this movement were:

  • Direct investment assets - investment income on equity and investment fund shares; up $1,536m (15.2%)
  • Portfolio investment assets - interest; up $589m (19.2%)
  • Other investment assets; up $325m (30.1%)

Primary income debits

In seasonally adjusted terms at current prices income to non-residents (debits) fell $1,524m (2.9%) to $51,572m. The main components contributing to this movement were:

  • Direct investment liabilities - income on equity and investment fund shares; down $2,559m (9.0%)
  • Portfolio investment liabilities - income on equity and investment fund shares; down $1,043m (10.3%)

Partly offset by:

  • Portfolio investment liabilities - interest; up $1,683m (17.4%)
  • Other investment income; up $386m (19.3%)

Secondary income

In seasonally adjusted terms at current prices, the net secondary income deficit rose $83m to $382m in the December quarter 2022. 

Capital and Financial Account

The capital and financial account recorded a deficit of $10.1b during the December 2022 quarter, mainly driven by the financial account deficit of $9.9b.

The financial account fell due to a $28.2b net outflow of equity and a $18.3b net inflow of debt.

Capital and financial account ($m)
 Mar 22Jun 22Sep 22Dec 22Sep 22 to
Dec 22
Capital account-186-211-239-19445
 Acquisitions/disposals of non-produced non-financial assets256-11-14-3
  Acquisitions/disposals of non-produced non-financial assets credits668---
  Acquisitions/disposals of non-produced non-financial assets debits-4-12-11-14-3
 Capital transfers-188-267-228-18048
  Capital transfers credits-----
  Capital transfers debits-188-267-228-18048
Financial account-5,646-19,89413,229-9,873-23,102
 Direct investment-59,296-6,2283,307-16,977-20,284
  Direct investment assets-118,300-12,217-28,076-15,00913,067
  Direct investment liabilities59,0055,98931,383-1,969-33,352
 Portfolio investment56,77639,3905,18120,84815,667
  Portfolio investment assets-32,96315,120-2,583-17,014-14,431
  Portfolio investment liabilities89,73924,2707,76437,86230,098
 Financial derivatives-2,734-1,8255,989-10,994-16,983
  Financial derivatives assets43,34075,658117,83096,068-21,762
  Financial derivatives liabilities-46,074-77,483-111,840-107,0624,778
 Other investment207-50,770474-1,794-2,268
  Other investment assets-16,796-32,784-2,1233,2325,355
  Other investment liabilities17,003-17,9862,597-5,026-7,623
 Reserve assets-599-462-1,721-956765
 Net errors and omissions3,887-220-4,385-4,36916

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

International Investment Position

Australia's net IIP liability position was $856.8b at 31 December 2022, a decrease of $3.1b on the revised 30 September 2022 figure of $859.9b. Australia's net foreign equity asset position increased $6.7b to $306.1b at 31 December 2022. Australia's net foreign debt liability position increased $3.6b to $1,162.8b.

International investment position, by net foreign equity and net foreign debt ($m)
 Position at beginning of periodTransactionsPrice changesExchange rate changesOther adjustmentsPosition at end of period
Net International Investment Position
 Jun‑22825,377-19,89470,044-38,145446837,827
 Sep‑22837,82713,22933,258-22,448-1,965859,901
 Dec‑22859,901-9,873-9,60117,623-1,256856,794
Net Foreign Equity
 Jun‑22-309,476-1,09784,948-74,615-1,579-301,819
 Sep‑22-301,81910,33931,779-36,333-3,325-299,360
 Dec‑22-299,360-28,186-3,95129,195-3,748-306,051
Net Foreign Debt
 Jun‑221,134,853-18,797-14,90536,4702,0251,139,646
 Sep‑221,139,6462,8911,47913,8861,3611,159,262
 Dec‑221,159,26218,313-5,650-11,5722,4921,162,845

Data downloads

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

Supplementary Information

Value adjustments

Revisions

Economic conditions

COVID-19 in this publication

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 5302.0.

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