Australia's Q4 BoP current account balance largely in line with expectations

Australia's BoP current account balance for Q4 came at -3.9 billion AUD vs -4.0bn AUD exp and -11.4bn  AUD last. As per the 'net exports as a % of GDP' for Q4, it came in line with expectations at +0.2% vs -0.2% last.

DEC KEY POINTS

BALANCE OF PAYMENTS

The current account deficit, seasonally adjusted, fell $6,348m (62%) to $3,853m in the December quarter 2016. There was a turnaround of $8,205m on the balance on goods and services, resulting in a surplus of $4,667m in the December quarter 2016. The primary income deficit rose $1,843m (30%) to $8,081m.

In seasonally adjusted chain volume terms, the surplus on goods and services rose $700m (49%) from $1,424m in the September quarter 2016 to $2,124m in the December quarter 2016. This is expected to contribute 0.2 percentage points to growth in the December quarter 2016 volume measure of GDP.

INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT POSITION (IIP)

Australia's net IIP liability position was $1,021.6b at 31 December 2016, a decrease of $19.8b (2%) on the revised 30 September 2016 position of $1,041.4b. Australia's net foreign debt liability decreased $25.6b (2%) to a net liability position of $1,023.1b. Australia's net foreign equity asset decreased $5.8b (80%) to a net asset position of $1.4b at 31 December 2016.