SEPTEMBER KEY FIGURES

			Jun Qtr 08 to Sep Qtr 08	Sep Qtr 07 to Sep Qtr 08
			%	%
Sales of goods & services (Chain vol. meas.)
	Manufacturing
		Trend	0.0	3.4
		Seasonally Adjusted	-1.1	3.1
	Wholesale trade
		Trend	0.4	2.7
		Seasonally Adjusted	-0.1	2.9
Inventories (Chain vol. meas.)
	Trend		0.9	4.3
	Seasonally Adjusted		0.7	4.1
Company gross operating profits
	Trend		4.4	(a)na
	Seasonally Adjusted		5.2	31.3
Wages and salaries
	Seasonally Adjusted		1.4	7.2
na not available
(a) See paragraph 24 of the Technical Note for more information.

Inventories (volume terms), Trend estimates - Quarterly change

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

SEPTEMBER KEY POINTS


CHAIN VOLUME ESTIMATES

• The trend estimate for inventories rose 0.9% in the September quarter 2008. The seasonally adjusted estimate rose 0.7% this quarter.
• The trend estimate for Manufacturing sales of goods and services was relatively unchanged this quarter. The seasonally adjusted estimate fell 1.1%.
• The trend estimate for Wholesale trade's sales of goods and services rose 0.4% this quarter. The seasonally adjusted estimate fell 0.1%.

CURRENT PRICE ESTIMATES

• The seasonally adjusted estimate for company gross operating profits rose 5.2% in the September quarter 2008.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for wages and salaries rose 1.4% in the September quarter 2008.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
December 2008	2 March 2009
March 2009	1 June 2009
June 2009	31 August 2009
September 2009	30 November 2009

CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

A new base year, 2006-07, has been introduced into the chain volume estimates which has resulted in minor revisions to growth rates in subsequent periods. In addition, the chain volume estimates have been re-referenced to 2006-07. Additivity is preserved in the quarters of the reference year and subsequent quarters. Re-referencing affects the level of, but not the movements in, chain volume estimates.

As happens each year, a seasonal re-analysis has been undertaken based on estimates up to and including the June quarter 2008. No significant changes have occurred this re-analysis, resulting in only minor revisions to the seasonally adjusted estimates.


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 September quarter, growth in GOS will be lower after the application of the IVA. The IVA for the September quarter is $3741m which is $564m higher than the June quarter IVA of $3177m. 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 4900.