JULY KEY FIGURES

		May 2008	June 2008	July 2008	Jun 08 to Jul 08
		$m	$m	$m	% change
BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES
	Trend estimates	-175	-101	-34	66
	Seasonally adjusted	-280	351	-717	. .
CREDITS (Exports of goods & services)
	Trend estimates	22 359	22 765	23 095	1
	Seasonally adjusted	22 554	23 053	22 880	-1
DEBITS (Imports of goods & services)
	Trend estimates	22 534	22 866	23 129	1
	Seasonally adjusted	22 834	22 702	23 597	4
. . not applicable

Balance on Goods and Services

JULY KEY POINTS


BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES

• The trend estimate of the balance on goods and services was a deficit of $34m in July 2008, a decrease of $67m on a revised deficit in June 2008.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, the balance on goods and services was a deficit of $717m in July 2008, a turnaround of $1,068m on a revised surplus in June 2008.
• The seasonally adjusted deficit was primarily due to the strong rise in goods and services debits, mainly in intermediate and other goods.

CREDITS (EXPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES)

• Seasonally adjusted, goods and services credits fell $173m (1%) to $22,880m. Non-rural goods fell $665m (4%) and rural goods fell $79m (3%), while other goods rose $577m (55%). Services credits fell $8m.
• The fall in non-rural and other goods was largely driven by coal, coke and briquettes, which fell $356m (9%).

DEBITS (IMPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES)

• Seasonally adjusted, goods and services debits rose $895m (4%) to $23,597m. Intermediate and other goods rose $1,118m (12%) while capital goods fell $199m (5%) and consumption goods fell $85m (2%). Services debits rose $60m (1%).
• The increase in intermediate and other goods was driven by fuels and lubricants, which rose $822m (29%).

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
August 2008	2 October 2008
September 2008	5 November 2008
October 2008	4 December 2008
November 2008	8 January 2009
December 2008	3 February 2009
January 2009	5 March 2009

REVISIONS

Revisions were made to the previous six months to incorporate the latest available data relating to merchandise trade.

Major changes have been made to the product classifications used to present goods statistics on both a Balance of Payments and a Recorded trade basis in this publication and for related time series spreadsheets. International merchandise trade exports and imports data on a Recorded trade basis have been revised back to July 2005 to incorporate the introduction of the Standard International Trade Classification Revision 4 (SITC Rev 4) and the update to correspondences used to compile related commodity statistics. This has resulted in a break in some series between June and July 2005. However, these changes do not impact on Total exports and imports or on exports and imports by country or state.

Related to these changes to Recorded trade statistics, international trade in goods credits (exports) and debits (imports) on a Balance of Payments basis have been revised back to July 1993 to incorporate updated correspondences for the Balance of Payments commodity classifications.

In addition, monthly data for passenger and other transportation services has been split into 'passenger transportation' and 'other transportation' services. Passenger transportation services includes agency fees and commission receipts for air transport. The new series are available from July 1993 on a monthly basis and September 1993 on a quarterly basis.

The product classification changes do not impact on total goods or services credits and debits. For more details about these revisions refer to Changes in this issue.

The seasonally adjusted and trend estimates have been revised due to the use of concurrent seasonal adjustment (see paragraph 8 in the Explanatory Notes) and the annual seasonal reanalysis (see Changes in this issue).


INQUIRIES

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