With both the Australian bushfires and COVID-19 (coronavirus) affecting living circumstances in January 2020, the ABS confirms that there has been negative impacts to international trade in goods and services.

The balance on goods and services was a surplus of $4,984m in January, an $83m decrease on the surplus in December 2019 in trend terms. The balance on goods and services was a surplus of $5,210m in January, a decrease of $166m on the December 2019 surplus (in seasonally adjusted terms).

In seasonally adjusted terms, goods and services credits fell $1,66m (3%) to $40,122m. Non-monetary gold fell 34% and non-rural goods fell 3%, while rural goods rose 6% and services credits rose 1%.

Goods and services debits fell $1,001m (3%) to $34,911m, seasonally adjusted. Capital goods fell by 10%, intermediate and other merchandise goods fell 4% and services debtits fell 1%, while non-monetary gold rose 60%.