5302.0.55.004 - Balance of Payments - Goods and Services, Preliminary Quarterly Estimates, Mar 2015  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 26/05/2015   
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The ABS provides information on Australia's international trade in goods and services in three publications:

  • International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia (cat. no. 5368.0) provides monthly current price estimates for both credits (exports) and debits (imports).
  • This publication provides the following selected broad level preliminary quarterly estimates for the current quarter:
    • current price estimates of the balance on goods and services, and
    • chain volume measures and price indexes for goods debits.
  • Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia (cat. no. 5302.0) provides quarterly estimates in current prices, chain volume measures and price indexes for goods and services credits and debits plus the full balance of payments and international investment position in current prices.

Estimates may be revised between the monthly estimates in cat. no. 5368.0, the preliminary estimates in this publication and the quarterly estimates in cat. no. 5302.0. The March quarter 2015 issue of Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia (cat. no. 5302.0) will be released on 2 June 2015.


PRELIMINARY CURRENT PRICE ESTIMATES OF BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES
  • In seasonally adjusted current price terms, the balance on goods and services was a deficit of $3,701m in the March quarter 2015, a rise of $994m (37%) on the revised December quarter 2014 deficit of $2,707m. The main components contributing to the rise in the deficit on goods and services were:
    • goods debits, up $2,365m (4%)
      • processed industrial supplies n.e.s., up $1,103m (15%)
      • civil aircraft and confidentialised items, up $581m (40%)
      • textiles, clothing and footwear, up $491m (14%)
      • fuel and lubricants, down $1,687m (19%).
    • services debits, up $193m (1%)
      • travel, up $124m (2%)
      • maintenance and repair services n.i.e., up $91m (123%).
Partly offsetting these components were:
    • goods credits, up $1,345m (2%)
      • coal, coke and briquettes, up $879m (9%)
      • other rural, up $757m (19%)
      • non-monetary gold, up $641m (19%)
      • metal ores and minerals, down $709m (3%)
      • metals (excl. non-monetary gold), down $516m (16%).
    • services credits, up $218m (1%)
      • travel, up $218m (2%).



PRELIMINARY ESTIMATES OF CHAIN VOLUME MEASURES AND PRICE INDEXES FOR GOODS DEBITS (footnote 1, footnote 2)
  • In seasonally adjusted terms, goods imports volumes rose 4.0% and the implicit price deflator fell 0.5% during the March quarter 2015.
  • In original terms, the chain Laspeyres price index fell 0.1% and the implicit price deflator fell 0.6%.


CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

DELAYS OF OVERSEAS ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES (OAD) DATA

As previously advised, a number of releases of Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia (cat. no. 3401.0) have been delayed due to passenger card processing issues as announced by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP). Final OAD data for October, November and December 2014 published in the ABS publication Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia (cat. no. 3401.0) and preliminary OAD estimates for January, February and March 2015 published in the ABS publication Preliminary Estimates of Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia (cat. no. 3401.0.30.001) have been incorporated into services estimates. These preliminary OAD estimates have been modelled based on a combination of historical OAD data and information about travellers for the relevant reference months from DIBP's traveller processing system. Caution should be used when interpreting the recent services credits and services debits estimates as they are based on modelled estimates rather than actual data. For further information refer to the Explanatory Notes of Preliminary Estimates of Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia (cat. no. 3401.0.30.001).


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070, email client.services@abs.gov.au or Balance of Payments on Canberra (02) 6252 5540. The ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS will handle any personal information that you provide to us.


Footnote:
1 Reference year for chain volume measures and price index is 2012–13. See paragraphs 16 to 18 of the Explanatory Notes.

2 In this commentary movements in indexes are based on data to four decimal places.