MARCH KEY FIGURES

		March 2011	Feb 2011 to Mar 2011
		$m	% change
Turnover at current prices
	Trend	20 435.1	0.1
	Seasonally Adjusted	20 457.4	-0.5

		March Qtr 2011	December Qtr 2010 to March Qtr 2011
		$m	% change
Turnover in volume terms
	Trend	59 775.9	-0.1
	Seasonally Adjusted	59 761.0	0.0

Monthly Turnover, Current Prices - Trend Estimate

Quarterly Turnover, in volume terms - Trend estimate

MARCH KEY POINTS


CURRENT PRICES

• The trend estimate rose 0.1% in March 2011. This follows a rise of 0.1% in February 2011 and a rise of 0.1% in January 2011.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate fell 0.5% in March 2011. This follows a revised rise of 0.8% in February 2011 and a revised rise of 0.3% in January 2011.
• In trend terms, Australian turnover rose 2.0% in March 2011 compared with March 2010.
• The following industries rose in trend terms in March 2011: Food retailing (0.4%) and Other retailing (0.3%). Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (0.0%) and Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (0.0%) were relatively unchanged. Household goods retailing (-0.4%) and Department stores (-0.1%) fell in trend terms in March 2011.
• The following states and territories rose in trend terms in March 2011: Western Australia (0.8%), New South Wales (0.2%), Queensland (0.1%), the Northern Territory (1.2%), South Australia (0.2%) and the Australian Capital Territory (0.2%). Victoria (-0.2%) and Tasmania (-0.3%) fell in trend terms in March 2011.

VOLUME TERMS

• In volume terms, the trend estimate for Australian retail turnover fell 0.1% in the March quarter 2011.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
April 2011	2 June 2011
May 2011	4 July 2011
June 2011	3 August 2011
July 2011	1 September 2011
August 2011	5 October 2011
September 2011	3 November 2011

IMPACT OF THE FLOODS

For December 2010 and January 2011, data collection activities were disrupted by the floods in Queensland. Although the quality and reliability of the Australian series were not affected, the estimates for Queensland subgroup and sample sector series for December 2010 and January 2011 were impacted by lower than usual response to the survey and therefore should be used with caution. Data collection activities largely returned to normal for February 2011 and March 2011.

The seasonal adjustment of several Queensland series and the Australian total series now includes a large extreme correction for February 2011. This correction allows improved separation of seasonal influences from the impact of unusual, flood-related influences. The correction is estimated using data up to and including March 2011. Details on the use of large extreme corrections to stabilise estimates of the trend and seasonal pattern during unusual events can be found in the feature article: When it's not "Business-as-usual": Implications for ABS Time Series in the August 2009 issue of Australian Economic Indicators (cat. no. 1350.0).


REVISIONS

Original estimates for December quarter 2010 have been revised as a result of updated information received from survey respondents.

Revisions to seasonally adjusted estimates are due to the concurrent methodology for deriving seasonal factors. This includes the use of a large extreme correction for flood related influences for February 2011. See Impact of the floods above for details.


TIME SERIES DATA

Data available from the Downloads tab of this issue on the ABS website include longer time series of tables in this publication, the quarterly chain volume measures and the following additional current price monthly series:

• Retail turnover by state and 15 industry subgroups in trend, seasonally adjusted and original terms
• Retail turnover completely enumerated and sample sector, by six industry groups in original terms
• Retail turnover completely enumerated and sample sector, by state in original terms
• Retail turnover completely enumerated sector, total level in trend, seasonally adjusted and original terms.

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Paul Slater on Sydney (02) 9268 4581.