MEDIA RELEASE
1 June 2011	Embargo: 11.30 am (Canberra Time)	68/2011

Latest ABS figures show that GDP, in seasonally adjusted volume terms, declined 1.2% in the March quarter 2011. This is the largest quarterly fall in GDP since the March quarter 1991.

Flooding which began in late December 2010 combined with cyclones in both Queensland and Western Australian have had a significant impact on the March quarter activity. Despite the fall in GDP volumes there was an increase of 0.3% in Real gross national income driven by an increase of 5.8% in the Terms of trade on the back of stronger commodity prices.

The main detractors to expenditure on GDP were Net exports (-2.4 percentage points) and Inventories (-0.5 percentage points). Private gross fixed capital formation (0.7 percentage points) was the largest positive contributor.

From an industry perspective the main detractor to GDP was Mining (down 6.1%) with a 0.6 percentage points detraction, while Manufacturing (down 2.4%) and Agriculture (down 8.9%) both detracted 0.2 points from GDP.

Further details can be found in Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product (cat. no. 5206.0).

Media note:
When reporting ABS data, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) must be attributed as the source.