OCTOBER KEY FIGURES

		Aug 2010	Sep 2010	Oct 2010	Sep 10 to Oct 10
		$m	$m	$m	% change
BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES
	Trend estimates	2 360	2 418	2 446	. .
	Seasonally adjusted	2 385	1 814	2 625	. .
CREDITS (Exports of goods & services)
	Trend estimates	24 823	24 668	24 476	-1
	Seasonally adjusted	24 419	24 071	24 324	1
DEBITS (Imports of goods & services)
	Trend estimates	22 463	22 251	22 029	-1
	Seasonally adjusted	22 034	22 257	21 699	-3
. . not applicable

Balance on Goods and Services

OCTOBER KEY POINTS


BALANCE ON GOODS AND SERVICES

• The trend estimate of the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $2,446m in October 2010, an increase of $28m on the surplus in September 2010.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $2,625m in October 2010, an increase of $811m on the surplus in September 2010.

CREDITS (EXPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES)

• In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services credits rose $253m (1%) to $24,324m. Non-monetary gold rose $414m (36%) and rural goods rose $181m (8%). Non-rural goods fell $245m (2%) and net exports of goods under merchanting fell $23m (79%). Services credits fell $73m (2%).

DEBITS (IMPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES)

• In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services debits fell $558m (3%) to $21,699m. Intermediate and other merchandise goods fell $411m (5%), consumption goods fell $111m (2%) and non-monetary gold fell $48m (8%). Capital goods rose $5m. Services debits rose $8m.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
November 2010	11 January 2011
December 2010	3 February 2011
January 2011	3 March 2011
February 2011	5 April 2011
March 2011	10 May 2011
April 2011	2 June 2011

REVISIONS

Revisions have been made to incorporate the latest data relating to international merchandise trade. There were no revisions to the balance of payments series in original terms.


IRON ORE AND COAL PRICES

An adjustment has been made to the value of the 'metal ores and minerals' component in the balance of payments series. See the section Commodity prices adjustment for details.


TRADE IN SERVICES DATA CUBES

Financial Year Trade in Services data cubes incorporating data for 2009-10 (cat. no. 5368.0.55.003) will be released on 3 December 2010.


CONCEPTS, SOURCES AND METHODS PUBLICATION

The next issue of Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia: Concepts, Sources and methods - 2011 (cat. no. 5331.0), is scheduled to be released on 8 March 2011. This issue will describe the concepts, sources and methods used to compile the balance of payments statistics in this publication which are on a Balance of Payments and International Investment Position manual, sixth edition (BPM6) basis.


CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

Summary information on Australia's top 10 partner countries has been included in this issue. Further partner country information for merchandise trade (tables 14a & 14b) is available from the Downloads tab of this issue and for trade in services will be available from Financial Year Trade in Services data cubes incorporating data for 2009-10 (cat. no. 5368.0.55.003) which will be released on 3 December 2010.

The Australian Harmonized Export Commodity Classification (AHECC), Jan 2007 (cat. no. 1233.0) incorporating statistical codes to take effect from 1 January 2011 was released on the ABS website on 26 November 2010.


INQUIRIES

For further information contact Selvi Sekhar on Canberra (02) 6252 5540 for Goods, and Peter Bradbury on Canberra (02) 6252 6473 for Services.