MARCH KEY FIGURES

		% change Dec qtr 13 to Mar qtr 14	% change Mar qtr 13 to Mar qtr 14
GDP (Chain volume measure)
	Trend	0.8	3.2
	Seasonally adjusted	1.1	3.5
Final consumption expenditure (Chain volume measure)
	Trend	0.6	2.6
	Seasonally adjusted	0.5	2.5
Gross fixed capital formation (Chain volume measure)
	Trend	-0.6	-2.0
	Seasonally adjusted	-	-0.8
GDP chain price index
	Original	0.4	1.7
Terms of trade
	Seasonally adjusted	-1.2	-3.8
Real net national disposable income
	Trend	0.7	1.8
	Seasonally adjusted	1.3	2.2
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

GDP growth rates, Volume measures, quarterly change

Contributions to GDP growth, Seasonally adjusted

MARCH KEY POINTS


KEY AGGREGATES

• In trend terms, GDP increased 0.8% in the March quarter 2014. Gross value added per hour worked in the market sector rose 0.8% and the Terms of trade fell 0.6%.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, GDP increased by 1.1% in the March quarter. The Terms of trade decreased 1.2%, and Real gross domestic income increased 0.8%.

EXPENDITURE ON GDP

• In seasonally adjusted terms, the contributors to the increase in expenditure on GDP were Net exports (1.4 percentage points), Final consumption expenditure (0.3 percentage points) and Private gross fixed capital formation (0.2 percentage points). The main detractor was Changes in inventories (-0.6 percentage points).

INDUSTRY GROSS VALUE ADDED

• In seasonally adjusted terms, the main contributors to GDP were Mining (up 8.6%), Financial and insurance services (up 2.8%) and Construction (up 3.0%). Mining contributed 0.9 percentage points to the increase in GDP while Financial and insurance services and Construction each contributed 0.2 percentage points.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
June 2014	3 September 2014
September 2014	3 December 2014
December 2014	4 March 2015
March 2015	3 June 2015

REVISIONS IN THIS ISSUE

There are revisions in this issue due to the incorporation of more up-to-date data and concurrent seasonal adjustment.

The estimate of the Implicit price deflator (IPD) for exports includes information not available at the time of compiling the Export Price Index (EPI), including a negative $900m iron ore value adjustment applied to the March quarter 2014 in the Balance of Payments. The EPI for March quarter 2014 will be revised with the June quarter issue of International Trade Price Indexes, Australia (cat. no. 6457.0) on 31 July 2014.


MINING

A short note discussing the strength in mining and the impact of concurrent seasonal analysis is in Analysis and Comments section of this issue.


EXPORTS AND IMPORTS OF GOODS BY STATE

Estimates of exports and imports of goods by state will no longer be published in this publication. All other data within this publication are compiled on a System of National Accounts 2008 ( 2008 SNA) basis. However, State-based estimates of international trade are compiled on an International Merchandise Trade Statistics basis, which is not harmonised with the 2008 SNA.

Since the merchandise trade basis of recording differs from the 2008 SNA standard, the ABS is concerned that users could be misled through the publication of data based on two different statistical standards within the same tables.

Users can continue to source State-based estimates of exports and imports of goods from International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia (cat. no. 5368.0).


COMPENSATION OF EMPLOYEES

This issue includes the addition of a new table which shows Compensation of Employees by State by Public and Private Sector. This table is available in electronic format only (table 40).


INQUIRIES

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