Mining drives down turnover in February
Business turnover for the Mining industry had the largest monthly fall in February of 9.6 per cent (seasonally adjusted), according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Robert Ewing, ABS head of business statistics, said: “The large fall in Mining drove the 1.1 per cent drop in turnover for the 13 industry aggregate. This was even with only three of the 13 industries showing a fall.”
“In trend terms, turnover for the 13 industry aggregate dropped 0.1 per cent, which was the first monthly fall since August last year.”
The fall in Mining turnover was largely due to falling commodity prices, particularly iron ore prices. The weakness in metal ores was somewhat offset by growth in the Oil & Gas Extraction subdivision, which rose by 5.1 per cent in the month.
Of the nine industries that had increased seasonally adjusted turnover in February, Arts and recreation services saw the largest rise of 4.8 per cent, driven by sporting events like the Australian Grand Prix.
Accommodation and food services was the next highest, up 3.2 per cent, as consumers continued to favour travel and eating out as part of discretionary spending. Accommodation turnover was also boosted by the Taylor Swift concerts in Melbourne and Sydney during February.
Compared to February 2023, turnover was higher for 11 of the 13 industries included in the indicator.
The industries that saw the biggest annual rises were Electricity, gas, water and waste services (14.6 per cent), Construction (11.2 per cent), and Accommodation and food services (9.9 per cent).
Annually, the largest fall was in Mining, down 13.8 per cent.
Media notes
- The Monthly Business Turnover Indicator is derived using Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Business Activity Statement (BAS) data from monthly remitters.
- Monthly BAS reporting covers businesses with GST annual turnover of $20 million or more and a proportion of smaller businesses that report on a voluntary basis.
- The indicator includes 13 of the 19 industry divisions classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006, and provides timely and frequent insights into economic activity, which complement the longstanding quarterly measures.
- The extra leap year day in 2024 is unlikely to impact seasonally adjusted statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for February 2024 and March quarter 2024. This is because the impact of an additional leap year day is analysed as part of the seasonal adjustment process, which includes the impact of trading days. The impact of the extra leap year day will be evident in the original (non-seasonally adjusted) series. For further information please refer to this note.
- When reporting ABS data you must attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or the ABS) as the source.
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