MARCH KEY FIGURES

		% change Dec qtr 08 to Mar qtr 09	% change Mar qtr 08 to Mar qtr 09
GDP (Chain volume measure)
	Trend	-0.1	0.3
	Seasonally adjusted	0.4	0.4
Final consumption expenditure (Chain volume measure)
	Trend	0.4	1.2
	Seasonally adjusted	0.5	1.2
Gross fixed capital formation (Chain volume measure)
	Trend	-2.0	0.8
	Seasonally adjusted	-4.8	-1.3
GDP chain price index
	Original	-1.3	5.4
Terms of trade
	Seasonally adjusted	-7.8	5.8
Real net national disposable income
	Trend	-1.0	2.5
	Seasonally adjusted	-1.7	2.4

GDP growth rates, Volume measures, quarterly change

Contributions to GDP growth, Seasonally adjusted

MARCH KEY POINTS


KEY AGGREGATES

• In trend terms, GDP decreased 0.1% and Non-farm GDP decreased by 0.2%. GDP per hour worked in the market sector was flat and the Household saving ratio was 0.8.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, GDP increased by 0.4% in the March quarter. Non-farm GDP grew 0.5%. The Terms of trade fell 7.8% and Real gross domestic income fell 1.4%.

EXPENDITURE ON GDP

• In seasonally adjusted terms, the main positive contributors to expenditure on GDP was Imports (1.6 percentage points), Exports (0.6 percentage points) and Household final consumption expenditure (0.3 percentage points). The largest negative contribution came from Private business investment (-1.1 percentage points)

INDUSTRY GROSS VALUE ADDED

• In seasonally adjusted terms, Manufacturing and Property and business services both detracted 0.3 percentage points from GDP growth, while Construction detracted 0.2 percentage points.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
June 2009	2 September 2009
September 2009	16 December 2009
December 2009	3 March 2010
March 2010	2 June 2010

REVISIONS IN THIS ISSUE

There are quarterly revisions due to the incorporation of more up-to-date source data and changes to seasonal adjustment factors. The overall effect of these revisions has been to decrease growth in the seasonally adjusted volume measure of GDP in December quarter 2008 by 0.1 percentage points, and to increase September quarter 2008 growth by 0.1 percentage points.


INTERPRETING TREND ESTIMATES

The trend series in this publication should be interpreted with caution as the underlying behaviour of a number of series may have been impacted by global economic conditions and the Federal Government's Economic Security Package implemented in December 2008 and further fiscal stimulus measures implemented in March 2009.

These Federal Government initiatives have had significant one-off impacts to government social assistance benefits paid to households. These measures have distorted the regular pattern of this series and have therefore been removed from the seasonal factor and trend estimation processes, although the full impacts of these measures are still reflected in the original and seasonally adjusted estimates. Aggregates and balances in the household income account and the general government income account, including the household saving ratio, are affected in trend terms. Impacts of future measures will be treated similarly.


SEASONAL ADJUSTMENT CHANGES

For some selected series for this issue forward factor seasonal adjustment has replaced the usual concurrent seasonal adjustment. The forward seasonal factors have been projected from March quarter 2008. This has been done because of the uncertain influence of the global financial crisis on the seasonal pattern of the original estimates. This change in seasonal adjustment approach will be reviewed next quarter.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Laurie Nitschke on Canberra (02) 6252 6711, email <national.accounts@ abs.gov.au>.