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
March 2023
Released
6/06/2023

Key statistics

  • The current account balance, seasonally adjusted, rose $581m to a surplus of $12,283m.
  • The capital and financial account deficit narrowed $4,645m to $5,789m.
  • The net international investment liability position was $862,315m at 31 March 2023.

International accounts overview

Key figures ($m)
 Dec 23 Mar 23
Balance on current account (a)11,70212,283
Balance on goods and services (a)39,02241,051
Net primary income (a)-26,955-28,534
Capital and financial account-10,434-5,789
International investment position (b)881,149862,315

a. Seasonally adjusted estimates in current price terms.
b. Levels at end of period.

The current account balance (seasonally adjusted current price) for March quarter 2023 was a surplus of $12.3b. The current account balance increased $581m from the revised December quarter 2022 surplus of $11.7b.

The increase in the current account reflected a higher trade surplus partly offset by a rise in the net primary income deficit.

The balance on goods and services in seasonally adjusted chain volume terms is expected to detract 0.2 percentage points from the March quarter 2023 GDP quarterly movement, assuming no significant revision to December quarter 2022 estimates of GDP.

The terms of trade increased 2.8% to 114.0, up from 110.9 in December quarter 2022.  

The net primary income deficit increased to $28.5b, following the $27.0b deficit in December quarter 2022.

Australia's net international investment liability position was $862.3b at March quarter 2023, a decrease of $18.8b on the revised December quarter 2022 position of $881.1b.

 

Review of seasonal adjustment

An extraordinary annual seasonal review (EASR) was undertaken this quarter. The outcome of the review is that concurrent seasonal adjustment has been reinstated for all seasonally adjusted estimates in this publication. The review also assessed seasonal factors and appropriateness of any prior corrections in more detail than is possible in the quarterly cycle, resulting in larger revisions than usual. 

Trend estimates for national and state goods credits and debits and for the primary and secondary income series have been reinstated (including for the entire COVID period in the data downloads spreadsheets). For further details, see COVID-19 in this publication under Supplementary information.

  1. Seasonally adjusted estimates in current price terms.

Current Account

Balance on current account, current price, seasonally adjusted ($m)
 Dec 23Mar 23Dec 23 to Mar 23
Balance on current account11,70212,283581
Balance on goods and services39,02241,0512,029
Net goods42,93642,453-483
Net Services-3,914-1,4032,511
Net primary income-26,955-28,534-1,579
Net secondary income-366-234132

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 $15,670m, a fall of $1,182m on the revised December quarter 2022 surplus of $16,852m.

The fall in the balance on goods and services surplus of $1.2 billion (seasonally adjusted, chain volume measure) is expected to detract 0.2 percentage points to the March quarter 2023 GDP quarterly movement. 

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

Exports of goods (credits)

In seasonally adjusted terms at current prices, goods credits fell $1,210m (0.8%) to $152,072m, with volumes up 0.7% and prices down 1.4%.

 

Goods credits, price and volume change, seasonally adjusted - March quarter 2023
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Exports of goods-1,210-0.80.7-1.4
 Rural goods-762-3.96.5-9.8
 Non-rural goods-1,177-0.9-0.8-0.1
 Net exports of goods under merchanting47180.8152.911.0
 Non-monetary gold(c)68311.66.44.9

a. Reference year 2020-21=100.
b. Movements in indexes 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 $727m (0.7%) to $109,619m, with volumes up 3.3% and prices down 3.8%. 

Goods debits, price and volume change, seasonally adjusted - March quarter 2023
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Total Goods Imports-727-0.73.3-3.8
 Consumption goods7912.34.9-2.4
 Capital goods1,2314.85.3-0.4
 Intermediate and other merchandise goods-3,435-7.0-1.1-5.9
 Non-monetary gold(c) 68647.740.94.9

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

Consumption goods

Capital goods

Intermediate and other merchandise goods

Services

Services exports, price and volume change, seasonally adjusted - March quarter 2023
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Exports of services1,9879.07.71.2
 Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others----
 Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.-8-38.1-38.40.5
 Transport-76-4.2-3.3-1.0
 Travel2,31619.817.52.0
 Other services-246-2.9-3.40.5

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
a. Reference year 2020-21=100.
b. Movements in indexes are calculated from unrounded data.
 

Services imports, price and volume change, seasonally adjusted - March quarter 2023
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a) (%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Imports of services-526-2.03.1-5.0
 Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others----
 Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.-33-21.2-20.5-0.9
 Transport-1,391-17.0-5.8-11.9
 Travel5377.07.1-0.1
 Other services3623.64.5-0.8

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
a. Reference year 2020-21=100.
b. Movements in indexes are calculated from unrounded data.

Income

Net primary income deficit widened by $1,579m to $28,534m in the March quarter 2023. 

  1.  Seasonally adjusted estimates in current price terms.

Primary income credits

Primary income credits, in seasonally adjusted, current price terms fell $2,895m (11.9%). The key components contributing to the decline were:

  • Direct investment assets – income on equity and investment fund shares; down by $3,180m (29.4%)
  • Portfolio investment assets – interest; down by $271m (7.4%)

Partly offset by:

  • Other investment assets; up by $253m (17.8%)

Primary income debits

Primary income debits, in seasonally adjusted, current price terms fell $1,315m (2.6%). The key components contributing to the decline were:

  • Direct investment liabilities – income on equity and investment fund shares; down $2,372m (9.4%)

Partly offset by:

  • Portfolio investment liabilities – investment income on equity and investment fund shares; up $597m (6.6%)
  • Compensation of employees; up $395m (14.7%)

Secondary income

In current price seasonally adjusted terms, the net secondary income deficit fell $132m (36.1%) to $234m.

Secondary income credits fell $48m (1.5%) and Secondary income debits fell $180m (5.2%) in the March quarter 2023.

Capital and Financial Account

The capital and financial account recorded a deficit of $5.8b during the March 2023 quarter, mainly driven by the financial account deficit of $5.6b.

The financial account fell due to a $0.3b net outflow of equity and a $5.3b net outflow of debt.

Capital and financial account ($m)
 Jun 22Sep 22Dec 22Mar 23Dec 22 to
Mar 23
Capital account-211-239-194-201-7
 Acquisitions/disposals of non-produced non-financial assets56-11-14-14-
  Acquisitions/disposals of non-produced non-financial assets credits68----
  Acquisitions/disposals of non-produced non-financial assets debits-12-11-14-14-
 Capital transfers-267-228-180-187-7
  Capital transfers credits-----
  Capital transfers debits-267-228-180-187-7
Financial account-17,58313,372-10,240-5,5884,652
 Direct investment-3,8153,425-15,8508,09223,942
  Direct investment assets-12,116-27,778-13,741-9,8153,926
  Direct investment liabilities8,30131,203-2,10917,90620,015
 Portfolio investment39,3695,17119,6574,841-14,816
  Portfolio investment assets15,101-2,594-18,361-16,4211,940
  Portfolio investment liabilities24,2677,76538,01921,262-16,757
 Financial derivatives-1,8255,989-10,994-4,2906,704
  Financial derivatives assets75,658117,83095,80589,007-6,798
  Financial derivatives liabilities-77,843-111,840-106,799-93,29813,501
 Other investment-50,849508-2,098-11,432-9,334
  Other investment assets-32,772-2,0557,8666,838-1,028
  Other investment liabilities-18,0772,563-9,964-18,270-8,306
 Reserve assets-462-1,721-956-2,798-1,842
 Net errors and omissions-1,865-4,377-3,360-3,697-337

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

International Investment Position

Australia's net IIP liability position was $862.3b at 31 March 2023, a decrease of $18.8b on the revised 31 December 2022 figure of $881.1b. Australia's net foreign equity asset position increased $45.5b to $332.4b at 31 March 2023. Australia's net foreign debt liability position increased $26.7b to $1,194.8b.

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
 Sep‑22839,30113,37237,231-22,170-6,123861,610
 Dec‑22861,610-10,24016,59117,041-3,853881,149
 Mar‑23881,149-5,58810,381-23,255-372862,315
Net Foreign Equity
 Sep‑22-301,11010,42335,786-36,184-9,306-300,391
 Dec‑22-300,391-28,20721,72727,471-7,538-286,938
 Mar‑23-286,938-331-15,708-27,678-1,786-332,440
Net Foreign Debt
 Sep‑221,140,4112,9491,44514,0143,1831,162,002
 Dec‑221,162,00217,967-5,136-10,4303,6851,168,087
 Mar‑231,168,087-5,25726,0894,4231,4141,194,755

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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