The social opportunity cost of consumption (SOCC) for an economy is the rate at which current consumption can be traded for consumption in the future. The SOCC is an important determinant of the socially optimal levels of investment and the current account surplus and should be an input into the framing of government economic policy. Using overseas interest rates, the SOCC for Australia is calculated in this paper. The calculated series is fairly constant for the 1960's and then has a pronounced cyclical pattern from the late 1960's to 1988-89. The average value of the SOCC for Australia is about four per cent.