DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

			Sep Qtr 09 to Dec Qtr 09	Dec Qtr 08 to Dec Qtr 09
			%	%
Sales of goods and services (Chain volume measures)
	Manufacturing
		Trend	1.2	-2.7
		Seasonally Adjusted	3.5	-0.4
	Wholesale trade
		Trend	1.7	4.7
		Seasonally Adjusted	4.1	7.5
Inventories (Chain volume measures)
	Trend		-0.2	-3.0
	Seasonally Adjusted		0.2	-2.6
Company gross operating profits
	Trend		-0.8	-14.0
	Seasonally Adjusted		2.2	-11.2
Wages and salaries
	Seasonally Adjusted		0.6	-1.6

Inventories (volume terms), Trend estimates

Company gross operating profits, Trend estimates

DECEMBER KEY POINTS


CHAIN VOLUME ESTIMATES

• The trend estimate for inventories fell 0.2% in the December quarter 2009. The seasonally adjusted estimate rose 0.2% this quarter.
• The trend estimate for Manufacturing sales of goods and services rose 1.2% this quarter. The seasonally adjusted estimate rose 3.5%.
• The trend estimate for Wholesale trade's sales of goods and services rose 1.7% this quarter. The seasonally adjusted estimate rose 4.1%.

CURRENT PRICE ESTIMATES

• The seasonally adjusted estimate for company gross operating profits rose 2.2% in the December quarter 2009.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for wages and salaries rose 0.6% in the December quarter 2009.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
March 2010	31 May 2010
June 2010	30 August 2010
September 2010	29 November 2010
December 2010	28 February 2011

COMPARISON BETWEEN COMPANY GROSS OPERATING PROFITS AND GROSS OPERATING SURPLUS

Valuation changes have had an impact on the value of inventories held by Australian businesses this quarter. An inventories valuation adjustment (IVA) is applied in the calculation of the gross operating surplus of private non-financial corporations (GOS) estimate in the Australian National Accounts. The IVA for the December quarter 2009 is (-$1780)m which is $503m lower than the September quarter IVA of (-$1277)m.

No adjustment is made to the company gross operating profits (CGOP) estimate in this publication and, as a result, users should exercise caution when comparing CGOP and GOS. It should be noted that there are other differences between the two series. In particular, changes are made to GOS when annual benchmarks are applied and slightly different seasonal factors apply to the two series. Given this, while CGOP movements are an appropriate indicator for GOS, the two series will not have equivalent seasonally adjusted movements from quarter to quarter.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Didier Rivet on Sydney (02) 9268 4900.