26 September 2023

Current account scores surplus hat-trick

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The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has revealed that a surplus of $13.9 billion in the quarterly current account figures to December last year is the nation’s third consecutive surplus.

Chief Economist at the ABS, Bruce Hockman said falling prices for bulk commodities and a decrease in non-monetary gold volumes drove what was a smaller current account surplus for the quarter.

“Net exports in volume terms remained steady overall, with rises across several categories offset by the fall in non-monetary gold,” Mr Hockman said.

“As a result, net exports have a limited contribution of 0.1 percentage points to gross domestic product (GDP),” he said.

“In seasonally adjusted chain volume terms, the balance on goods and services surplus increased $0.5 billion, widening the surplus to $8.9 billion, with an expected contribution of 0.1 percentage points to growth in the December quarter 2019 GDP.”

He said Australia’s net foreign debt liability position decreased by $20.9 billion to $1,143.5 billion, while Australia’s net foreign equity asset position increased $62.6 billion to $252.1 billion for the same quarter.

“The ABS has published an article, Measuring Natural Disasters in the Australian Economy, which provides an overview of recent natural disasters in ABS measures of the economy,” Mr Hockman said.

The article can be viewed online at this PS News link.

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