MARCH KEY FIGURES

			Dec Qtr 07 to Mar Qtr 08	Mar Qtr 07 to Mar Qtr 08
			%	%
Sales of goods & services (Chain vol. meas.)
	Manufacturing
		Trend	1.1	3.0
		Seasonally Adjusted	0.7	2.8
	Wholesale trade
		Trend	0.7	2.1
		Seasonally Adjusted	-0.5	0.9
Inventories (Chain vol. meas.)
	Trend		0.9	3.9
	Seasonally Adjusted		0.9	3.6
Company gross operating profits
	Trend		2.1	6.2
	Seasonally Adjusted		2.2	7.0
Wages and salaries
	Seasonally Adjusted		1.5	7.2

Inventories (volume terms), Trend estimates - Quarterly change

Company gross operating profits (current prices), Trend estimates - Quarterly change

MARCH KEY POINTS


CHAIN VOLUME ESTIMATES

• The trend estimate for inventories rose 0.9% in the March quarter 2008. The seasonally adjusted estimate rose 0.9% this quarter.
• The trend estimate for Manufacturing sales of goods and services rose 1.1% this quarter. The seasonally adjusted estimate rose 0.7%.
• The trend estimate for Wholesale trade's sales of goods and services rose 0.7% this quarter. The seasonally adjusted estimate fell 0.5%.

CURRENT PRICE ESTIMATES

• The trend estimate for company gross operating profits rose 2.1% in the March quarter 2008. The seasonally adjusted estimate rose 2.2%.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for wages and salaries increased 1.5% in the March quarter 2008.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
June 2008	1 September 2008
September 2008	1 December 2008

CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

There are no changes to this issue.


COMPARISON BETWEEN COMPANY GROSS OPERATING PROFITS AND GROSS OPERATING SURPLUS

Price 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. As prices for inventories have risen in the March quarter, growth in GOS will be lower after the application of the IVA. The IVA for the March quarter is $1275m which is $276m higher than the December quarter IVA of $999m. 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 the two series. 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, it is not the case that the two series will 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 4241.