Balance of payments statistics on current, capital and financial transactions and the international investment position statement.
Key Points:
- The current account surplus, seasonally adjusted, rose $2,273m to $18,283m.
- The capital and financial account deficit rose $4,696m to $15,363m.
- Australia’s net IIP liability position was $874.6b at 31 March 2021.
Balance on goods and services
In seasonally adjusted chain volume terms, the balance on goods and services was a surplus of $10,000m, a fall of $2,903m on the December quarter 2020 surplus of $12,903m.
The fall in the balance on goods and services surplus, in seasonally adjusted chain volume terms, is expected to detract 0.6 percentage points from the change in the March quarter 2021 chain volume measure of GDP, assuming no significant revision to the GDP chain volume estimate for the December quarter 2020.
Exports of goods (credits)
In seasonally adjusted terms at current prices, goods credits rose $9,051m (10%) to $103,337m, with volumes up 2% and prices up 7%.
Imports of goods (debits)
In seasonally adjusted terms at current prices, goods debits rose $2,265m (3%) to $81,300m, with volumes up 3%.
Capital and Financial Account
The capital and financial account recorded a deficit of $15.4b, mainly driven by the financial account deficit of $15.2.
The financial account deficit was due to a net outflow of equity of $21.4b and a net inflow of debt of $6.2b.
International Investment Position
Australia’s net IIP liability position was $874.6b at 31 March 2021, a decrease of $75.4b on the revised 31 December 2020 position of $950.0b. Australia’s net foreign debt liability position decreased $23.2b to $1,138.9b. Australia’s net foreign equity asset position increased $52.1b to $264.2b at 31 March 2021.
