The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has just released its Balance of Payments – Goods and Services data for the December quarter, which:
Provides preliminary quarterly estimates of goods and services data including preliminary quarterly estimates of Chain Volume Measures for goods debits. Preliminary seasonally adjusted quarterly balance on goods and services are compared to the sum of seasonally adjusted balances for the three months of the quarter.
I will admit that I still don’t fully understand the difference between this release to that of the ABS’ International Trade in Goods and Services, which is released monthly. Nevertheless, this release estimates that Australia’s balance on goods and services was a seasonally adjusted deficit of $5,553 million in the December quarter of 2012, a rise of $164 million (3%) on the September quarter 2012 deficit of $5,389 million.
The key contributors to this deficit were:
- goods credits (exports), up $686m (1%)
- metal ores and minerals, up $785m (4%).
- services credits (exports), up $48m
- other services, up $95m (3%).
- goods debits (imports), up $811m (1%)
- capital goods n.e.s., up $1,047m (33%).
- services debits (imports), up $87m (1%)
- transport, up $191m (5%), with passenger transport up $129m (7%).
As a comparison, below is the quarterly trade deficit as shown in the December International Trade data released earlier in the month by the ABS. This showed a deficit in the December quarter of $5,081 million, a decrease of $766 million (13%) from the $5,847 million deficit recorded in the September quarter (see next chart).
