Exports
Goods and services sold to the rest of the world. In balance-of-payments language they are credits.
Australia · Trade
Understanding
Australia’s trade figures.
What the measures mean, how the releases differ, and what these trade figures can and cannot show.
August 2026 goods edition · June quarter 2026 balance-of-payments edition · New releases are checked before updating
Not seasonally adjusted (original) means regular seasonal patterns remain in the figures. It does not mean the first or unrevised edition. Seasonally adjusted figures allow for regular seasonal patterns; the label does not mean more up-to-date.
The measures in plain English
Imports
Goods and services bought from the rest of the world. They are debits. The charts display their absolute value when comparing their size with exports.
Trade balance
Exports minus imports. A positive result is a surplus; a negative result is a deficit.
Current account
The goods-and-services balance plus primary and secondary income flows with the rest of the world.
Terms of trade
An index comparing export prices with import prices. It measures purchasing power, not the trade balance.
Seasonally adjusted
Regular seasonal patterns are removed to make adjacent months or quarters easier to compare.
Two releases, two frequencies
The monthly International Trade in Goods release provides goods exports, imports, the goods balance and broad goods categories. The quarterly Balance of Payments release adds services, service categories, income flows and the current account. Monthly goods figures should not be treated as if they included services.
Headline flows and histories use seasonally adjusted totals. The service-category comparison uses Original current-price figures and adds the latest four published quarters, preserving the ABS category basis while reducing the effect of seasonal peaks.
All Data uses the full available history of each selected series. Missing source values remain missing. The site does not splice adjustment types, invent values or convert quarterly totals into monthly estimates.
How service categories work
The broad service groups are mutually exclusive and can be compared directly. Where the ABS publishes current numeric subcategories, the category page provides a read-only breakdown beneath the broad chart. For example, travel separates business, education-related personal and other personal travel; education services supplied to overseas students in Australia are counted within travel exports.
Some broad groups do not have a current published subdivision in the accepted table. Financial services, government goods and services, construction, maintenance and repair, and manufacturing services therefore remain at their broad published level.
What these figures do not cover
The recorded data releases do not contain bilateral trading-partner figures or detailed commodity tables. Those require a separately scoped OD capability with their own source, provenance, definitions and release pin. These figures therefore do not show which countries Australia trades with or provide a detailed list of individual commodities.
Official sources. Explicit editions.
Australian Bureau of Statistics: International Trade in Goods, August 2026. Recorded data release OD-MACRO-TG01-2026-08-0.1.0.
Australian Bureau of Statistics: Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, June quarter 2026. Recorded data release OD-MACRO-TB01-2026-06-0.1.0.
The services composition uses Tables 8 and 9 from the same ABS release. Recorded data release OD-MACRO-TS01-2026-06-0.1.0.
ABS material is used under CC BY 4.0. Extracted and processed by OD Engine and Common Sense Money Pty Ltd; presented independently by The Economic Picture. No ABS endorsement.
This section uses a specific source edition. New releases are checked before updating. It does not query the OD database at runtime and does not silently adopt later source editions.
When is trade recorded?
These statistics record transactions, not the date money changes hands. Goods use the applicable change-of-ownership basis; services are recorded as supplied. A payment may happen earlier or later.