Fight Finance

(a) Trade surplus was roughly zero, so Australians exported as much as they imported.

(b) Net Income was negative, so Australians paid more dividends and interest to foreigners than they received. This is probably because Australia has greater gross foreign liabilities than gross foreign assets.

(c) Current account deficit means Australians have to lend to foreigners by buying foreigners’ debt and equity which represent net capital outflows out of Australia.

(d) Net foreign equity liabilities were negative (less than zero) so Australians had positive net foreign equity assets which means that Australians owned more foreign shares than foreigners owned of Australian shares.

(e) Persistent current account deficit will make its net foreign liabilities greater and greater.