Exports and imports
10.129 The exports and imports series shown in the national accounts are identical to those provided in the balance of payments statistics. (In the balance of payments, exports are labelled 'credits' and imports 'debits'.) The ABS publication, Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia: Concepts, Sources and Methods provides an extensive description of the concepts, sources and methods for exports and imports statistics.
10.130 In any given period, some of the output of an economy may be acquired by non-residents. Such transactions are classified as exports of goods and services. Similarly, some of the goods and services acquired by residents in a particular period may have been produced by non-residents, rather than produced domestically. These transactions are classified as imports of goods and services.
10.131 As with other transactions recorded in the national accounts, exports and imports are recorded at the time the change in ownership of real assets occurs, or when a service is delivered. This time of recording may not coincide with when payments are made, in which case entries for pre- or post-payments will be recorded in the financial account. In some cases (i.e. gifts or grants) goods and services may be exported or imported (and recorded as such in the national accounts) without a settlement ever being required. In these cases, either a current or capital transfer will be recorded in lieu of an actual payment.
10.132 Assets, such as large modulated mining infrastructure, which incur lengthy construction periods, are recorded as progressive change of ownership; that is, the item is recorded as the importing unit takes ownership of the assets under construction as the individual components are complete. This differs from machinery and equipment imports where the change in ownership is deemed to have occurred once the importer has taken delivery of the asset as fully complete. Delivery may occur entirely outside the economic territory of the importer.
10.133 In the various ASNA publications, exports and imports of goods and services are generally shown as a single aggregate. (The main exception is the detailed input and output tables, where exports and imports are broken down by industry of origin or by product group.) In the balance of payments, however, exports and imports are broken down into a number of components. The following shows the main components:
| Exports | |
|---|---|
| Goods | Rural goods |
| Non-rural goods | |
| Net exports of goods under merchanting | |
| Non-monetary gold | |
| Services | Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others |
| Maintenance and repair services n.i.e. | |
| Transportation services | |
| Travel services | |
| Other services | |
| Imports | |
| Goods | Consumption goods |
| Capital goods | |
| Intermediate and other merchandise goods | |
| Non-monetary gold | |
| Services | Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others |
| Maintenance and repair services n.i.e. | |
| Transportation services | |
| Travel services | |
| Other services | |
10.134 The item 'goods' covers transactions involving most movable goods. However, transactions between residents and non-residents in some movable goods are classified as services. The most notable example is goods acquired by travellers, which are classified as travel services.
10.135 Exports and imports of goods are both valued free on board (f.o.b.) at the customs frontier of the exporting country. The f.o.b. price includes the value of distributive services involved in transporting the goods to the customs frontier and in loading the goods onto the carrier. The f.o.b. price does not include distributive services provided in transferring the goods from the customs frontier of the exporting country to the recipient of the goods. If such services are provided on Australia's imports by non-residents they will be recorded as imports of transportation services. If such services are provided by Australian residents on Australia's exports they will be recorded as exports of transportation services.
10.136 The values of exports and imports denominated in foreign currencies are converted into Australian dollars using market rates of exchange. If exporters and importers use derivative instruments to hedge against foreign exchange rate movements, then the cash flows associated with these instruments will be recorded as transactions in derivatives, which are shown in the financial account.
Sources and methods - Annual
10.137 All of the sources required to compile exports and imports of goods data are available on a quarterly basis. Therefore, the annual estimates are obtained by summing the quarterly estimates.
Sources and methods - Quarterly
10.138 The sources and methods for the export and import of goods and services for both current price estimates and volume estimates are discussed in the tables that follow:
| Item | Comment | |
|---|---|---|
| Current price estimates | ||
| The primary source for exports and imports general merchandise data is the ABS International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS) which is compiled using administrative by-product information from the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service. The coverage, timing and valuation of these statistics are adjusted, as required, to place them on a balance of payments basis. These adjustments are made using data from the Survey of International Transport Enterprises (SITE) and other sources including the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Survey of International Trade in Services (SITS). The following adjustments are made:
| |
| Volume estimates | ||
| Exports | ||
| The chain volume measures for export commodities are obtained by deflating current price values using export price indexes. The processes of chain volume compilation can be read in detail in the ABS publication, Spotlight on National Accounts Australia: Measuring Chain Volumes for Exports of Goods & Services, July 2011. The ASNA uses the price indexes underlying those published in International Trade Price Indexes, Australia. The chain volume measures of coverage and timing adjustments, that are made to bring exports as recorded in the IMTS onto the required national accounts/balance of payments basis, are also derived using relevant implicit price deflators from International Trade Price Indexes, Australia. | |
| Imports | ||
| All volume measures are derived by deflating current price values using detailed price indexes. All but two of the components are deflated using price indexes derived from those underlying the price indexes published in International Trade Price Indexes, Australia. The exceptions are:
| |
| Item | Comment | |
|---|---|---|
| Current price estimates | ||
| Transport services | ||
| The principal sources of information on exports and imports of transportation services are the International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS); the Cost, Insurance and Freight/Free on Board model (CIF/FOB); and the Survey of International Trade in Services (SITS). The CIF/FOB model is used to compile estimates of imports of freight services with a minor adjustment made for resident freight operators from the SITS. The SITS is used to compile all other components of transportation services. However, this does experience a lag of one quarter, so projections and other sources are used in the interim. | |
| Travel services | ||
| The standard component breakdown of travel services is between business and personal travel. Services acquired by persons undertaking study or medical care while outside their territory of residence are also encompassed in travel services. Personal travel is separated into two major subcomponents:
Business Travel – exports and imports are sourced directly from the Travel credits and Travel debits model respectively. Both use the ABS overseas arrivals and departures information for number of short-term travellers by reason and net expenditure supplied by Tourism Research Australia. Each of these models provides monthly and quarterly estimates, however data sources are lagged so current month estimates are a projection (nowcast) and data can be projections for up to seven months for credits and ten months for debits. | |
| Other services | ||
| The principal source for estimates of exports and imports of other services is the SITS, which covers the following services:
The following outlines the main components of other services:
| |
| Volume estimates | ||
| Exports | ||
| Volume measures are obtained mainly by deflation of the current price values, using relevant ABS price indexes underlying those published in:
| |
| Imports | ||
| In most cases, volume measures are derived by deflating current price values using consumer price indexes from overseas countries, adjusted for exchange rate changes. In other cases, special purpose price indexes, implicit price deflators and ABS price indexes from Consumer Price Index, Australia and International Trade Price Indexes, Australia are used. | |