International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia

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Statistics about international trade in goods and services, on a balance of payments and international trade basis.

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Reference period
February 2023
Released
6/04/2023
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Key statistics

  • The seasonally adjusted balance on goods and services surplus increased $2,604m in February. 
  • Goods and services debits (imports) fell $4,304m (9.1%) driven by Non-industrial transport equipment.
  • Goods and services credits (exports) fell $1,700m (2.9%) driven by Metal ores and minerals. 

Monthly Travel Services debits (imports) estimates now labelled as preliminary

The ABS is now labelling the monthly estimates of Travel Service debits as preliminary.

Recent changes in traveller spending patterns has increased the uncertainty of monthly Travel Service debit estimates. With this comes a higher risk of revisions. Please use caution when interpreting the preliminary estimates particularly estimates for the latest month.   

The ABS calculates monthly estimates by using:

Quarterly travel services debits published in the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia and the Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product are unaffected as all the data sources are available in time for publishing these estimates.

For more information about the compilation of monthly and quarter Travel Services please see Enhancing Trade in Services quarterly statistics | Australian Bureau of Statistics (abs.gov.au)

Trade overview

Key Figures, Seasonally Adjusted
 Dec-22 ($m)Jan-23 ($m)Feb-23 ($m)Jan-23 to Feb-23 ($m)Jan-23 to Feb-23 (%)
Balance on goods and services12,89711,26613,8702,604na
 Credits (Exports of goods & services)57,91058,74357,043-1,700-2.9
 Debits (Imports of goods & services)-45,013-47,477-43,173-4,304-9.1

na not applicable
 

Balance on goods and services

In seasonally adjusted terms, the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $13,870m in February 2023, an increase of $2,604m on the surplus in January 2023. 

Balance on goods and services(a), seasonally adjusted
 Dec-22 ($m)Jan-23 ($m)Feb-23 ($m)

Jan-23 to Feb-23 ($m)

Jan-23 to Feb-23 (%)

Balance on goods and services12,89711,26613,8702,604na
 Total goods and services credits57,91058,74357,043-1,700-2.9
  Total goods credits50,29350,84349,107-1,736-3.4
  Total services credits7,6187,9007,936360.5
 Total goods and services debits-45,013-47,477-43,173-4,304-9.1
  Total goods debits-36,400-38,406-34,595-3,811-9.9
  Total services debits-8,613-9,071-8,578-493-5.4

na not applicable
a. For sign conventions, see the methodology page.

Annual seasonal re-analysis

The seasonally adjusted and trend estimates of goods and services will be revised in the March month 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 monthly 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.

Goods and services credits

Goods credits (exports), seasonally adjusted

a. Trend series suspended from March 2019.

Goods credits, seasonally adjusted
 Dec-22 ($m)Jan-23 ($m)Feb-23 ($m)Jan-23 to Feb-23 ($m)Jan-23 to Feb-23 (%)
Total goods credits50,29350,84349,107-1,736-3.4
 General merchandise48,01848,46346,956-1,507-3.1
  Rural goods6,1945,9456,1452003.4
  Non-rural goods41,82442,51840,811-1,707-4.0
 Net exports of goods under merchanting(a)--10-10--
 Non-monetary gold(a)2,2752,3902,161-229-9.6

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
a. This component is not seasonally adjusted.

Rural goods

Non-rural goods

Services credits

a. Trend series suspended from March 2019.

Services credits, seasonally adjusted
 Dec-22 ($m)Jan-23 ($m)Feb-23 ($m)Jan-23 to Feb-23 ($m)Jan-23 to Feb-23 (%)
Total services credits7,6187,9007,936360.5
 Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others(a)-----
 Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.(a)988--
 Transport718690708182.6
  Passenger(b)(c)351313330175.4
  Freight(d)363737--
  Other203208208--
  Postal and courier services(e)129133133--
 Travel(c)3,9274,1534,16180.2
 Other services2,9643,0493,060110.4
Memorandum item     
 Tourism related services credits(f)4,2784,4664,491250.6

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
a. This component is not seasonally adjusted.
b. Passenger transportation services includes agency fees and commissions for air transport.
c. This component has been seasonally adjusted using the forward factor method since March 2020 due to the impacts of COVID-19.
d. In using these seasonally adjusted series, care should be exercised because of the difficulties associated with reliably estimating the seasonal pattern.
e. Postal and courier services includes indirect commissions for sea transport.
f. For a more detailed explanation of tourism related services, see the methodology page.

Goods and services debits

Goods debits (imports), seasonally adjusted

a. Trend series suspended from March 2019.

Goods debits(a), seasonally adjusted
 Dec-22 ($m)Jan-23 ($m)Feb-23 ($m)Jan-23 to Feb-23 ($m)Jan-23 to Feb-23 (%)
Total goods debits-36,400-38,406-34,595-3,811-9.9
 General merchandise debits-35,913-37,810-33,810-4,000-10.6
  Consumption goods-11,296-12,522-10,109-2,413-19.3
  Capital goods-8,896-9,789-8,364-1,425-14.6
  Intermediate and other merchandise goods-15,722-15,499-15,337-162-1.0
 Non-monetary gold(b)-487-596-78518931.7

a. For sign conventions, see the methodology page.
b. This component is not seasonally adjusted.

Consumption goods

Capital goods

Intermediate and other merchandise goods

Services debits

a. Trend series suspended from March 2019.

Services debits(a), seasonally adjusted
 Dec-22 ($m)Jan-23 ($m)Feb-23 ($m)Jan-23 to Feb-23 ($m)Jan-23 to Feb-23 (%)
Total services debits-8,613-9,071-8,578-493-5.4
 Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others(b)-----
 Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.(b)-62-34-461235.3
 Transport-2,508-2,772-2,385-387-14.0
  Passenger(c)(d)-647-854-783-71-8.3
  Freight-1,795-1,842-1,525-317-17.2
  Other(b)-53-58-58--
  Postal and courier services(e)(f)-12-18-1915.6
 Travel(d)(g)-2,793-3,011-2,869-142-4.7
 Other services-3,250-3,254-3,277230.7
Memorandum item     
 Tourism related services debits(h)-3,440-3,865-3,652-213-5.5

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
a. For sign conventions, see the methodology page.
b. This component is not seasonally adjusted.
c. Passenger services includes agency fees and commissions for air transport.
d. This component has been seasonally adjusted using the forward factor method since March 2020 due to the impacts of COVID-19.
e. Postal and courier services includes indirect commissions for sea transport.
f. In using these seasonally adjusted series, care should be exercised because of the difficulties associated with reliably estimating the seasonal pattern.
g. Monthly estimates of Travel Service debits are now labelled preliminary.
h. For a more detailed explanation of tourism related services, see the methodology page.

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 5368.0.

Supplementary information

Selected commodities

Value adjustments

Revisions

Confidential Commodities List

COVID-19 in this publication

Data downloads

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Time series spreadsheets

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Data Cubes

Data files

  • Table 18. Balance of payments broad economic categories (detailed level), by country, latest 7 months, customs value, ($million)

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  • Table 19. Balance of payments broad economic categories (1 and 2 digit), by country, latest 7 months, customs value, ($million)

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Methodology

International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia methodology, February 2023