5368.0 - International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia, Jan 2009

ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 05/03/2009

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JANUARY KEY FIGURES

		November 2008	December 2008	January 2009	Dec 08 to Jan 09
		$m	$m	$m	% change

BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES
	Trend estimates	1 486	1 459	1 453	-
	Seasonally adjusted	778	417	970	133
CREDITS (Exports of goods & services)
	Trend estimates	26 195	26 033	25 725	-1
	Seasonally adjusted	26 456	25 513	24 244	-5
DEBITS (Imports of goods & services)
	Trend estimates	24 709	24 575	24 273	-1
	Seasonally adjusted	25 677	25 096	23 274	-7

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

Balance on Goods and Services
Graph: Balance on Goods and Services

JANUARY KEY POINTS

BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES

The trend estimate of the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $1,453m in January 2009, a decrease of $6m on a revised surplus in December 2008.
In seasonally adjusted terms, the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $970m in January 2009, an increase of $553m on a revised surplus in December 2008.
The increase in the seasonally adjusted surplus was primarily due to the strong fall in goods and services debits mainly in capital goods and intermediate and other goods.

CREDITS (EXPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES)

Seasonally adjusted, goods and services credits fell $1,269m (5%) to $24,244m. Non-rural goods fell $1,319m (8%) and rural goods fell $76m (3%) while other goods rose $105m (7%). Services credits rose $21m.
The fall in non-rural goods was largely driven by the coal, coke and briquettes component, which fell $1,043m (19%).

DEBITS (IMPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES)

Seasonally adjusted, goods and services debits fell $1,822m (7%) to $23,274m. Intermediate and other merchandise goods fell $1,059m (12%), capital goods fell $802m (15%) and consumption goods fell $182m (3%), while other goods rose $329m (30%). Services debits fell $109m (2%).
The components in intermediate and other merchandise goods with the largest falls were fuels and lubricants, down $322m (15%) and processed industrial supplies n.e.s., down $320m (16%).

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
February 2009	2 April 2009
March 2009	6 May 2009
April 2009	4 June 2009
May 2009	2 July 2009
June 2009	5 August 2009
July 2009	3 September 2009

REVISIONS

Revisions were made to the merchandise trade data for the previous six months to incorporate the latest available data. In original terms, the balance of payments capital goods n.e.s. debits component was revised for October to December 2008 to account for progressive payments made for some goods that have not yet crossed the Customs border. There were no other revisions to the balance of payments series in original terms. However, the seasonally adjusted and trend estimates have been revised due to the use of concurrent seasonal adjustment.

PRELIMINARY GOODS DEBITS

As advised in the January 2009 issue of International Merchandise Trade, Australia (cat. no. 5439.0), the preliminary estimate of balance of payments goods debits (imports) for January 2009 was released on the ABS web site on 24 February 2009 as an additional note on that issue.

GOODS DEBITS CONFIDENTIALITY

The confidentiality treatment described in the December 2008 issue of this publication is continued in this issue. This treatment impacts on the civil aircraft, capital goods n.e.s. and other merchandise goods components from September 2008.

INQUIRIES

For further information contact Selvi Sekhar on Canberra (02) 6252 5540 for goods, and Karen McGuigan on Canberra (02) 6252 5415 for services.