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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
September 2023
Released
5/12/2023

Key statistics

  • The current account balance, seasonally adjusted, fell $7,940m to a deficit of $158m.
  • The capital and financial account surplus was $3,124m, a turnaround of $20,261m on the June quarter 2023 deficit.
  • The net international investment liability position was $814,685m at 30 September 2023.

International accounts overview

Key figures ($m)
 Jun 23Sep 23
Balance on current account (a)7,782-158
Balance on goods and services (a)30,83722,862
Net primary income (a)-22,719-22,324
Capital and financial account-17,1373,124
International investment position (b)842,464814,685
  1. Seasonally adjusted estimates in current price terms.
  2. Levels at end of period.

The current account balance (seasonally adjusted, current price) for September quarter 2023 was a deficit of $158m. The current account balance decreased $7.9b from the revised June quarter 2023 surplus of $7.8b.

The decrease in the current account deficit reflected the fall in prices for Australia’s key export commodities, partly offset by a drop in the net primary income deficit.

The balance on goods and services in seasonally adjusted chain volume terms is expected to detract 0.6 percentage points from the September quarter 2023 GDP quarterly movement.

The terms of trade decreased 2.6% to 92.5, down from 95.0 in June quarter 2023.  

The net primary income deficit narrowed to $22.3b, following the $22.7b deficit in June quarter 2023.

Australia's net international investment liability position was $814.7b at September quarter 2023, a decrease of $27.8b on the revised June quarter 2023 position of $842.5b.

 

Ratios of current account and international investment measures to quarterly GDP and GNI have been updated in Table 23.

  1. Seasonally adjusted estimates in current price terms.

Current Account

Balance on current account, current price, seasonally adjusted ($m)
 Jun 23Sep 23Jun 23 to Sep 23
Balance on current account7,782-158-7,940
Balance on goods and services30,83722,862-7,975
Net goods30,77524,134-6,641
Net Services62-1,272-1,334
Net primary income-22,719-22,324395
Net secondary income-336-695-359

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 $33,426m, a fall of $3,747m on the revised June quarter 2023 surplus of $37,173m.

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

Exports of goods (credits)

In seasonally adjusted terms at current prices, goods credits fell $4,267m (3.1%) to $134,622m, with volumes down 1.2% and prices down 1.9%.

 

Goods credits, price and volume change, seasonally adjusted - September quarter 2023
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Exports of goods-4,267-3.1-1.2-1.9
 Rural goods2401.311.8-9.3
 Non-rural goods-5,503-4.9-4.0-0.9
 Net exports of goods under merchanting65114.0110.21.8
 Non-monetary gold(c)93112.412.20.2
  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 rose $2,374m (2.2%) to $110,488m, with volumes up 0.5% and prices up 1.7%. 

Goods debits, price and volume change, seasonally adjusted - September quarter 2023
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Total Goods Imports2,3742.20.51.7
 Consumption goods-72-0.2-0.50.3
 Capital goods9023.43.40.0
 Intermediate and other merchandise goods1,3072.9-0.93.8
 Non-monetary gold(c)23710.511.0-0.5
  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 - September quarter 2023
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Exports of services7452.71.90.7
 Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others----
 Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.-2-25.0-27.02.7
 Transport191.02.1-1.1
 Travel8495.04.40.6
 Other services-120-1.3-2.71.4

- 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 - September quarter 2023
 Current prices ($m)Current prices (%)Chain volume measures (a)(b)(%)Implicit price deflators (a)(b)(%)
Imports of services2,0797.58.4-0.9
 Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others----
 Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.-1-0.5-3.22.7
 Transport-245-3.510.1-12.3
 Travel2,26923.819.53.7
 Other services560.5-1.92.5

- 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 $395m to $22,324m in the September quarter 2023. 

  1.  Seasonally adjusted estimates in current price terms.

Primary income credits

Primary income credits, in seasonally adjusted, current price terms rose $1,565m (6.7%). The key components contributing to the increase were:

  • Portfolio investment assets - interest; up $787m (21.5%)
  • Direct investment assets - income on equity and investment fund shares; up $325m (4.0%)
  • Portfolio investment assets - income on equity and investment fund shares; up $213m (2.5%)

Primary income debits

Primary income debits, in seasonally adjusted, current price terms rose $1,171m (2.5%). The key components contributing to the increase were:

  • Portfolio investment liabilities - interest; up $1,973m (17.4%)
  • Compensation of employees; up $299m (9.7%)

Partly offset by:

  • Portfolio investment liabilities - income on equity and investment fund shares; down $1,080m (10.9%)

Secondary income

In current price seasonally adjusted terms, the net secondary income deficit rose $359m to $695m.

Secondary income credits fell $105m (3.2%) and Secondary income debits rose $254m (7.0%) in the September quarter 2023.

Capital and Financial Account

The capital and financial account recorded a surplus of $3.1b during the September 2023 quarter, driven by the financial account surplus of $3.4b.

The financial account recorded a surplus due to a $6.8b net inflow of equity and a $3.4b net outflow of debt.

Capital and financial account ($m)
 Dec 22Mar 23Jun 23Sep 23Jun 23 to
Sep 23
Capital account-194-202-281-283-2
 Acquisitions/disposals of non-produced non-financial assets-14-14-63-549
  Acquisitions/disposals of non-produced non-financial assets credits-----
  Acquisitions/disposals of non-produced non-financial assets debits-14-14-63-549
 Capital transfers-180-188-218-229-11
  Capital transfers credits-----
  Capital transfers debits-180-188-218-229-11
Financial account-8,901-9,579-16,8563,40720,263
 Direct investment-20,9621,8931,2591,524265
  Direct investment assets-17,363-10,8653,294-10,785-14,079
  Direct investment liabilities-3,59912,758-2,03612,30814,344
 Portfolio investment17,514707-20,425-5,66014,765
  Portfolio investment assets-14,788-24,404-4,774-27,390-22,616
  Portfolio investment liabilities32,30225,111-15,65121,73037,381
 Financial derivatives-9,961-5,478-4,763-3,3001,463
  Financial derivatives assets96,25589,08465,08863,919-1,169
  Financial derivatives liabilities-106,217-94,562-69,851-67,2192,632
 Other investment5,463-3,9046,96310,2203,257
  Other investment assets14,3707,11324,373-236-24,609
  Other investment liabilities-8,906-11,017-17,41010,45627,866
 Reserve assets-956-2,798110624514
Net errors and omissions-4,9752963,3254,3961,071

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

International Investment Position

Australia's international investment liability position was $814.7b at 30 September 2023, a decrease of $27.8b on the revised 30 June 2023 figure of $842.5b. Australia's net foreign equity asset position increased $25.0b to $351.9b and Australia's net foreign debt liability position decreased $2.8b to $1,166.6b.

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
 Mar‑23943,027-9,57931,020-23,473-12,708928,286
 Jun‑23928,286-16,856-63,230-1,503-4,233842,464
 Sep‑23842,4643,40710,244-31,848-9,582814,685
Net Foreign Equity
 Mar‑23-240,6564,3396,742-27,669-15,874-273,118
 Jun‑23-273,118-248-41,566-4,931-7,021-326,884
 Sep‑23-326,8846,77015,782-31,135-16,407-351,875
Net Foreign Debt
 Mar‑231,183,683-13,91924,2784,1963,1671,201,404
 Jun‑231,201,404-16,608-21,6643.4282,7881,169,349
 Sep‑231,169,349-3,363-5,538-7136,8251,166,560

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.

Post release changes

06/12/2023 Note: Updates to selected international accounts ratios: Table 23

Ratios of current account and international investment measures to quarterly GDP and GNI are normally presented in Table 23.

As advised on 5 December 2023, Table 23 in the 'Data downloads' was initially supressed and is now available in conjunction with the release of the September quarter 2023 issue of Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product.

Table 24 has been updated.

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