Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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MARCH KEY FIGURES

			Dec Qtr 2011	Mar Qtr 2012	Dec Qtr 2011 to Mar Qtr 2012
			$m	$m	% change
BALANCE ON CURRENT ACCOUNT
	Trend estimates		-9 968	-13 172	-32
	Seasonally adjusted		-9 639	-14 892	-55
BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES
	Trend estimates		1 904	-1 388	. .
	Seasonally adjusted		2 254	-3 062	. .
NET PRIMARY INCOME
	Trend estimates		-11 719	-11 623	1
	Seasonally adjusted		-11 740	-11 668	1
LEVELS AT END OF PERIOD
	International Investment Position		856 440	880 213	3
		Net foreign equity	121 291	138 099	14
		Net foreign debt	735 148	742 114	1
. . not applicable

Current Account Balance (a), Main aggregates

International Investment

• The current account deficit, seasonally adjusted, rose $5,253m (55%) to $14,892m in the March quarter 2012. There was a turnaround of $5,316m on the balance of goods and services, resulting in a deficit of $3,062m in the March quarter 2012. The primary income deficit fell $72m (1%) to $11,668m.
• In seasonally adjusted chain volume terms, the deficit on goods and services rose $1,816m (14%) from $12,819m in the December quarter 2011 to $14,635m in the March quarter 2012. This is expected to detract 0.5 percentage points from growth in the March quarter 2012 volume measure of GDP.

• Australia's net IIP liability position was $880.2b at 31 March 2012, an increase of $23.8b on 31 December 2011. Australia's net foreign debt liability increased $7.0b to a liability position of $742.1b. Australia's net foreign equity liability increased $16.8b to a liability position of $138.1b.

• no adjustment has been made to the 'metal ores and minerals' component for March quarter 2012. All previous adjustments have been removed
• a negative adjustment of $60m has been applied to the 'coal, coke and briquettes' component for March quarter 2012.

• the balance of payments goods debits component 'capital goods n.e.s.' includes an estimate of expenditure on capital goods that have changed ownership but have not yet crossed the customs frontier.