International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia

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Statistics about international trade in goods and services, on a balance of payments and international trade basis.

Reference period
March 2023
Released
4/05/2023

Key statistics

  • The seasonally adjusted balance on goods and services surplus increased $1,118m in March. 
  • Goods and services credits (exports) rose $2,181m (3.8%) driven by Metal ores and minerals. 
  • Goods and services debits (imports) rose $1,062m (2.5%) driven by Non-industrial transport equipment.

Monthly Travel Services debits (imports) estimates now labelled as preliminary

The ABS is now labelling the monthly estimates of Travel Service debits as preliminary.

Recent changes in traveller spending patterns has increased the uncertainty of monthly Travel Service debit estimates. With this comes a higher risk of revisions. Please use caution when interpreting the preliminary estimates particularly estimates for the latest month.   

The ABS calculates monthly estimates by using:

Quarterly travel services debits published in the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia and the Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product are unaffected as all the data sources are available in time for publishing these estimates.

For more information about the compilation of monthly and quarterly Travel Services please see Enhancing Trade in Services quarterly statistics | Australian Bureau of Statistics (abs.gov.au)

Trade overview

Key Figures, Seasonally Adjusted
 Jan-23 ($m)Feb-23 ($m)Mar-23 ($m)Feb-23 to Mar-23 ($m)Feb-23 to Mar-23 (%)
Balance on goods and services10,83114,15115,2691,118na
 Credits (Exports of goods & services)58,68757,11859,2992,1813.8
 Debits (Imports of goods & services)-47,856-42,967-44,0291,0622.5

na not applicable
 

Balance on goods and services

In seasonally adjusted terms, the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $15,269m in March 2023, an increase of $1,118 on the surplus in February 2023. 

Balance on goods and services(a), seasonally adjusted
 Jan-23 ($m)Feb-23 ($m)Mar-23 ($m)

Feb-23 to Mar-23 ($m)

Feb-23 to Mar-23 (%)

Balance on goods and services10,83114,15115,2691,118na
 Total goods and services credits58,68757,11859,2992,1813.8
  Total goods credits50,79949,16651,2772,1114.3
  Total services credits7,8887,9528,022700.9
 Total goods and services debits-47,856-42,967-44,0291,0622.5
  Total goods debits-38,863-34,728-35,8961,1683.4
  Total services debits-8,993-8,239-8,134-105-1.3

na not applicable
a. For sign conventions, see the methodology page.
 

Review of seasonal adjustment

An extraordinary annual seasonal review (EASR) was undertaken this month. The outcome of the review is that concurrent seasonal adjustment has been reinstated for all seasonally adjusted estimates in this publication. The review also assessed seasonal factors and appropriateness of any prior corrections in more detail than is possible in the monthly cycle, resulting in larger revisions than usual. 

Trend estimates for goods credits and debits have been reinstated (including for the entire COVID period in the data downloads spreadsheets). For further details, see COVID-19 in this publication under Supplementary information.

Goods and services credits

Goods credits (exports), seasonally adjusted

a. Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period.

Goods credits, seasonally adjusted
 Jan-23 ($m)Feb-23 ($m)Mar-23 ($m)Feb-23 to Mar-23 ($m)Feb-23 to Mar-23 (%)
Total goods credits50,79949,16651,2772,1114.3
 General merchandise48,41947,01749,2592,2424.8
  Rural goods5,9506,0446,70265810.9
  Non-rural goods42,46940,97442,5571,5833.9
 Net exports of goods under merchanting(a)-10-10-11-110.0
 Non-monetary gold(a)2,3902,1592,029-130-6.0

a. This component is not seasonally adjusted.
 

Rural goods

Non-rural goods

Services credits

Services credits, seasonally adjusted
 Jan-23 ($m)Feb-23 ($m)Mar-23 ($m)Feb-23 to Mar-23 ($m)Feb-23 to Mar-23 (%)
Total services credits7,8887,9528,022700.9
 Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others(a)-----
 Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.(a)433--
 Transport687707696-11-1.6
  Passenger(b)311330321-9-2.7
  Freight(c)363736-1-2.7
  Other207208208--
  Postal and courier services(d)132132131-1-0.8
 Travel4,1524,2044,274701.7
 Other services3,0453,0383,048100.3
Memorandum item     
 Tourism related services credits(e)4,4634,5344,595611.3

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
a. This component is not seasonally adjusted.
b. Passenger transportation services includes agency fees and commissions for air transport.
c. In using these seasonally adjusted series, care should be exercised because of the difficulties associated with reliably estimating the seasonal pattern.
d. Postal and courier services includes indirect commissions for sea transport.
e. For a more detailed explanation of tourism related services, see the methodology page.
 

Goods and services debits

Goods debits (imports), seasonally adjusted

a. Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period.

Goods debits(a), seasonally adjusted
 Jan-23 ($m)Feb-23 ($m)Mar-23 ($m)Feb-23 to Mar-23 ($m)Feb-23 to Mar-23 (%)
Total goods debits-38,863-34,728-35,8961,1683.4
 General merchandise debits-38,267-33,943-35,1541,2113.6
  Consumption goods-12,635-10,061-11,4751,41414.1
  Capital goods-9,999-8,552-8,341-211-2.5
  Intermediate and other merchandise goods-15,632-15,329-15,33890.1
 Non-monetary gold(b)-596-785-742-43-5.5

a. For sign conventions, see the methodology page.
b. This component is not seasonally adjusted.
 

Consumption goods

Capital goods

Intermediate and other merchandise goods

Services debits

Services debits(a), seasonally adjusted
 Jan-23 ($m)Feb-23 ($m)Mar-23 ($m)Feb-23 to Mar-23 ($m)Feb-23 to Mar-23 (%)
Total services debits-8,993-8,239-8,134-105-1.3
 Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others(b)-----
 Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.(b)-34-46-43-3-6.5
 Transport-2,747-2,460-2,371-89-3.6
  Passenger(c)-869-843-755-88-10.4
  Freight-1,803-1,541-1,539-2-0.1
  Other(b)-58-58-58--
  Postal and courier services(d)(e)-18-18-1915.6
 Travel(f)-2,956-2,457-2,435-22-0.9
 Other services-3,256-3,276-3,28590.3
Memorandum item     
 Tourism related services debits(g)-3,825-3,300-3,190-110-3.3

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
a. For sign conventions, see the methodology page.
b. This component is not seasonally adjusted.
c. Passenger services includes agency fees and commissions for air transport.
d. Postal and courier services includes indirect commissions for sea transport.
e. In using these seasonally adjusted series, care should be exercised because of the difficulties associated with reliably estimating the seasonal pattern.
f. Monthly estimates of Travel Service debits are now labelled preliminary.
g. For a more detailed explanation of tourism related services, see the methodology page.
 

Supplementary information

Selected commodities

Value adjustments

Revisions

Confidential Commodities List

COVID-19 in this publication

Data downloads

Time series spreadsheets

Data files
Data files

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 5368.0.

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