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 2023
Released
5/03/2024

Key statistics

  • The current account balance, seasonally adjusted, rose $10,524m to a surplus of $11,800m.
  • The capital and financial account deficit was $9,730m, a turnaround of $13,214m on the September quarter 2023 surplus. 
  • The net international investment liability position was $836,635m at 31 December 2023.

International accounts overview

Key figures ($m)
 Sep 23Dec 23
Balance on current account (a)1,27611,800
Balance on goods and services (a)24,17232,363
Net primary income (a)-22,073-20,171
Capital and financial account3,484-9,730
International investment position (b)811,171836,635
  1. Seasonally adjusted estimates in current price terms.
  2. Levels at end of period.

The current account balance (seasonally adjusted, current price) for December quarter 2023 was a surplus of $11.8b. The current account balance increased $10.5b from the revised September quarter 2023 surplus of $1.3b.

The increase in the current account surplus 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 0.6 percentage points to the December quarter 2023 GDP quarterly movement. 

The terms of trade increased 2.2% to 95.1, up from 93.0 in September quarter 2023. 

The net primary income deficit narrowed to $20.2b, following the $22.1b deficit in September quarter 2023.

Australia's net international investment liability position was $836.6b at 31 December 2023, an increase of $25.5b on the revised September quarter 2023 position of $811.2b.

 

  1. Seasonally adjusted estimates in current price terms.

Current Account

Balance on current account, current price, seasonally adjusted ($m)
 Sep 23Dec 23Sep 23 to Dec 23
Balance on current account1,27611,80010,524
Balance on goods and services24,17232,3638,191
Net goods24,07430,2106,136
Net Services982,1532,055
Net primary income-22,073-20,1711,902
Net secondary income-823-391432

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 $37,809m, a rise of $3,931m on the revised September quarter 2023 surplus of $33,878m.

  1. Seasonally adjusted, reference year 2021-22=100.

Exports of goods (credits)

In seasonally adjusted terms at current prices, goods credits rose $4,170m (3.1%) to $138,678m, with volumes down 0.4% and prices up 3.5%.

 

Goods credits, price and volume change, seasonally adjusted - December quarter 2023
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Exports of goods4,1703.1-0.43.5
 Rural goods-523-2.9-2.3-0.6
 Non-rural goods5,2354.80.54.3
 Net exports of goods under merchanting-21-31.3-36.68.3
 Non-monetary gold(c)-521-6.2-8.82.9
  1. Reference year 2021-22=100.
  2. Movements in indexes are calculated from unrounded data.
  3. 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 $1,966m (1.8%) to $108,468m, with volumes down 2.8% and prices up 1.1%. 

Goods debits, price and volume change, seasonally adjusted - December quarter 2023
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Total Goods Imports-1,966-1.8-2.81.1
 Consumption goods-1,176-3.4-5.42.1
 Capital goods-969-3.5-3.4-0.1
 Intermediate and other merchandise goods4260.9-0.11.0
 Non-monetary gold(c)-248-9.9-12.63.1
  1. Reference year 2021-22=100.
  2. Movements in indexes are calculated from unrounded data.
  3. This component is not seasonally adjusted.

Consumption goods

Capital goods

Intermediate and other merchandise goods

Services

Services exports, price and volume change, seasonally adjusted - December quarter 2023
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Exports of services3871.30.50.8
 Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others----
 Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.228.626.21.9
 Transport1468.05.12.7
 Travel3541.81.20.7
 Other services-115-1.3-1.90.7

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

  1. Reference year 2021-22=100.
  2. Movements in indexes are calculated from unrounded data.
Services imports, price and volume change, seasonally adjusted - December quarter 2023
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Imports of services-1,668-5.5-5.3-0.2
 Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others----
 Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.7841.540.40.7
 Transport-428-6.3-3.2-3.2
 Travel-925-7.8-9.01.2
 Other services-393-3.5-3.80.4

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

  1. Reference year 2021-22=100.
  2. Movements in indexes are calculated from unrounded data.

Income

Net primary income deficit narrowed by $1,902m to $20,171m in the December quarter 2023. 

  1.  Seasonally adjusted estimates in current price terms.

Primary income credits

Primary income credits, in seasonally adjusted, current price terms fell $107m (0.4%). The key components contributing to the decline were:

  • Portfolio investment assets - income on equity and investment fund shares; down $249m (2.9%)
  • Direct investment assets - income on equity and investment fund shares; down $215m (2.5%)

Partly offset by:

  • Portfolio investment assets - interest; up $398m (9.0%)

Primary income debits

Primary income debits, in seasonally adjusted, current price terms fell $2,009m (4.3%). The key components contributing to the decline were:

  • Direct investment liabilities - income on equity and investment fund shares; down $2,459m (14.3%)
  • Other investment liabilities; down $326m (9.7%)

Partly offset by:

  • Compensation of employees; up $267m (7.8%)

Secondary income

In current price seasonally adjusted terms, the net secondary income deficit fell $432m to $391m.

Secondary income credits rose $7m (0.2%) and Secondary income debits fell $424m (10.5%) in the December quarter 2023.

Capital and Financial Account

The capital and financial account recorded a deficit of $9.7b during the December 2023 quarter, driven by the financial account deficit of $9.6b.

The financial account recorded a deficit due to a $13.3b net outflow of equity and a $3.7b net inflow of debt.

Capital and financial account ($m)
 Mar 23Jun 23Sep 23Dec 23Sep 23 to
Dec 23
Capital account-202-281-171-15021
 Acquisitions/disposals of non-produced non-financial assets-14-63-52-2032
  Acquisitions/disposals of non-produced non-financial assets credits-----
  Acquisitions/disposals of non-produced non-financial assets debits-14-63-52-2032
 Capital transfers-188-218-119-130-11
  Capital transfers credits-----
  Capital transfers debits-188-218-119-130-11
Financial account-11,154-16,1383,655-9,580-13,235
 Direct investment1,891730-16127,72127,882
  Direct investment assets-10,8403,298-11,2651,55312,818
  Direct investment liabilities12,731-2,56811,10526,16815,063
 Portfolio investment117-20,315-6,5765747,150
  Portfolio investment assets-24,993-4,449-27,993-50,751-22,758
  Portfolio investment liabilities25,109-15,86621,41751,32629,909
 Financial derivatives-5,472-4,7361,111-35,891-37,002
  Financial derivatives assets89,08465,11368,460151,98883,528
  Financial derivatives liabilities-94,556-69,849-67,349-187,879-120,530
 Other investment-4,8928,0748,658-2,225-10,883
  Other investment assets6,12925,342-1,66312,45014,113
  Other investment liabilities-11,021-17,26810,321-14,675-24,996
 Reserve assets-2,798110624242-382
Net errors and omissions1,9712,4963,782-6,270-10,052

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

International Investment Position

Australia's international investment liability position was $836.6b at 31 December 2023, an increase of $25.5b on the revised 30 September 2023 figure of $811.2b. Australia's net foreign equity asset position increased $13.3b to $369.6b and Australia's net foreign debt liability position increased $38.8b to $1,206.3b.

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 PositionJun‑23927,059-16,138-62,908-1,411-4,608841,993
Sep‑23841,9933,6558,981-32,498-10,960811,171
Dec‑23811,171-9,580-19,57261,676-7,060836,635
Net Foreign EquityJun‑23-275,435-989-41,246-4,930-7,533-330,132
Sep‑23-330,1326,45016,951-31,250-18,346-356,327
Dec‑23-356,327-13,294-47,26058,451-11,195-369,625
Net Foreign DebtJun‑231,202,494-15,149-21,6633,5192,9251,172,125
Sep‑231,172,125-2,795-7,970-1,2487,3861,167,498
Dec‑231,167,4983,71427,6893,2254,1351,206,260

Data downloads

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

Seasonal adjustment for leap years

The extra leap year day in 2024 is unlikely to impact seasonally adjusted statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for the month of February 2024 and the March quarter 2024.  This is because the effect of an additional leap year day is analysed and accounted for as part of the seasonal adjustment process, which includes the impact of trading days. The impact of the extra leap year day will be evident in the original (non-seasonally adjusted) series. For more information please refer to this note.

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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