The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has highlighted that the current account surplus, the first since the June quarter in 1975, has been largely driven by strong growth in the price of commodities.
ABS chief economist Bruce Hockman said that “six consecutive quarters of goods and services surpluses, broadly commodity-driven, have laid the foundation for our first current account surplus in 44 years”.
The chief economist stated that large commodity prices had turned a $6.93 billion deficit in March into a net positive for Australia.
He also acknowledged imports as having fallen by $460 million.
“Export volumes for the key bulk commodities of liquid natural gas, coal and iron ore were up, while volumes fell across several import categories, resulting in an increased June quarter trade surplus,” Mr Hockman outlined.
Contribution to gross domestic product
In seasonally adjusted chain volume terms, the balance on goods and services surplus increased by $2.7 billion, which widened the surplus to $6.4 billion. The rising exports and falling imports resulted in an expected contribution of 0.6 percentage points to growth in the June quarter 2019 GDP.
International investment position
Australia’s net international investment position was a liability of $1,001.6 billion at 30 June 2019, an increase of $9.2 billion on the revised 31 March 2019 position of $992.3 billion.
Australia’s net foreign debt liability position increased $19.4 billion to $1,143.5 billion. Australia’s net foreign equity asset position increased $10.2 billion to $141.9 billion at 30 June 2019.
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