Selected Asset and Liabilities of the Private Non-financial Sectors

The selected non-financial assets data are sourced from the RBA. These data relate to households only.

‘Consumer durables’ are tangible assets, other than dwellings, that generally have a life of a year or more. These include motor vehicles, furnishings and other household equipment. The quarterly estimates of the market value of consumer durables owned by households are interpolated from annual data sourced from the ABS. The latest data are extrapolated from the most recent observation.

‘Dwellings’ are considered to be private dwellings owned by households in all areas of Australia. These include houses, semi-detached dwellings, townhouses, terrace houses, flats, units and apartments. The market value of the stock of household dwellings is estimated by multiplying the dwelling stock by an Australia-wide mean dwelling price series. The dwelling stock is estimated by combining Census data and the number of new dwellings completed each quarter (sourced from the ABS) with an adjustment for estimated demolitions. The dwelling price series is constructed from a number of sources including RP Data/Rismark.

The financial assets and liabilities data are derived from ABS Cat No 5232.0, Tables 4 and 20. The sectoral classification is on a national accounts basis and differs slightly from that in the preceding tables. In particular, the household sector includes unincorporated enterprises and non-profit institutions serving households. Identified claims between transactors in the same sector are excluded. The data were upgraded in 2009 to comply with SNA08 standards and are only available back to June 1988.

‘Reserves of life offices and pension funds’ are equal to total assets of life offices, superannuation funds and friendly societies, less liabilities of these institutions other than to policyholders and fund members. Ownership of these net assets is imputed to the household sector.

‘Unfunded superannuation claims’ are liabilities of state, local and national governments to public sector employees in respect of unfunded retirement benefits.

‘Loans from banks’ are taken directly from the asset side of Table 8 in the above ABS catalogue and exclude bills of exchange etc.