Australia - Outstanding Public Debt

For Australia, the financial aggregates include credit aggregates (kinds of lending) and monetary aggregates (components of money supply). Compiled by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) from data primarily supplied by banks and non-banks, and also incorporate data supplied by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

• Source tables:
  • Growth in selected financial aggregates (D1)
  • Lending and credit aggregates (D2)
  • Monetary aggregates (D3)
• Measurements:
  • Billions of Australian dollars (Bil. AUD)
  • Percent change month-over-month (% M/M)
  • Percent change year-over-year (% Y/Y)
• Adjustments:
  • Seasonally adjusted (SA)
  • Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
• Native frequency: Monthly
• Start date: As early as 1959m7

Prior to January 1989, figures for savings bank deposits are averages of end-month or near end-month figures for the current and previous months.

Up to and including June 2000, figures for banks are averages of weekly (Wednesday) figures and figures for NBFIs are averages of end-month figures for the current and previous months.

From July 2000 figures for both banks and NBFIs are end-month.

The data have breaks due to changes from time to time in the number of reporting institutions and other reporting changes.

Seasonal adjustment is by the RBA. 

In June 2026, the source writes:

All growth rates for the financial aggregates are seasonally adjusted, and adjusted for the effects of breaks in the series. Data for the levels of financial aggregates are not adjusted for series breaks, and growth rates should not be calculated from data on the levels of credit.

Historical levels and growth rates for the financial aggregates have been revised owing to the resubmission of data by some financial intermediaries, the re-estimation of seasonal factors and the incorporation of securitisation data. The RBA credit aggregates measure credit provided by financial institutions operating domestically. They do not capture cross-border or non-intermediated lending.

Since the July 2019 release, the financial aggregates have incorporated an improved conceptual framework and a new data collection. This is referred to as the Economic and Financial Statistics (EFS) collection. For more information, see Updates to Australia’s Financial Aggregates and the July 2019 Financial Aggregates.

Since the March 2023 release, series that exclude lending to warehouse trusts in business credit were added to the financial aggregates. More information is available in the Change Notice published 21 April 2023

Definitions

ABS

Australian Bureau of Statistics

ADI

Authorized deposit-taking institution

AFI

All financial intermediaries

AMMD

Authorized money market dealer

CUBS

Credit unions and building societies

NBFI

Non-bank financial institution

RFC

Registered financial corporation

SCCI

Specialist credit card institution

Currency

Holdings of notes and coins by the private non-bank sector.

Bank deposits

Exclude Australian and State Government and inter-bank deposits.

M1

Currency plus bank current deposits of the private non-bank sector.

Deposits with non-bank ADIs

Deposits with CUBS and SCCIs, less currency and deposits with other ADIs.

M3

M1 plus all other ADI deposits of the private non-ADI sector plus certificates of deposit issued by banks.

Other borrowings from private sector by AFIs

Non-deposit borrowings (other than from AFIs) by ADIs, RFCs (money market corporations, finance companies, pastoral finance companies and general financiers) and cash management trusts. Prior to August 1996, when AMMDs’ accreditation was revoked, these data include borrowings by AMMDs from the private sector and exclude borrowings by other AFIs from AMMDs.

Broad money

M3 plus other borrowings from the private sector by AFIs, less the holdings of currency and bank deposits by RFCs and cash management trusts.

Money base

Holdings of notes and coins by the private sector plus deposits of banks with the Reserve Bank and other Reserve Bank liabilities to the private non-bank sector.

Offshore borrowings by AFIs

Net foreign currency and Euro-A$ borrowings. Prior to April 2003, this series excluded EUR-AUD borrowings by NBFIs.

Moody's Analytics supplements

For the credit aggregates, we produce monthly break-adjusted seasonally-adjusted levels, by growing back the final level using the monthly break-adjusted growth rates. This is the same method as the G.19 in the U.S.

The above subset includes an intermediate aggregate, the sum of "owner occupied housing" and "investor housing."

Data are revised when new data become available.

From July 2019, the financial aggregates are compiled using an improved conceptual framework and a new data collection. This is referred to as the Economic and Financial Statistics Collection. Various movements from the June 2019 to July 2019 reporting periods are sizable, in part because the new data collection more consistently classifies loans according to their purpose. For more information, see Updates to Australia’s Financial Aggregates (March 2019).

Further reading

At the source:

• Updates to Australia's financial aggregates (Mar 2019)
• Measuring credit
• Glossary

• 10 May 2023, Phillip Thorne - Overhaul of release.
• 4 Jun 2026, Phillip Thorne - Methodology.