Business Indicators, Australia

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Quarterly estimates of profits, income from the sale of goods and services, wages and salaries, and the book value of inventories

Reference period
June 2020
Released
31/08/2020

Key statistics

  • The seasonally adjusted estimate for inventories fell 3.0%.
  • The seasonally adjusted estimate for manufacturing sales of goods and services fell 8.6%.
  • The seasonally adjusted estimate for wholesale trade sales of goods and services fell 6.7%.
  • The seasonally adjusted estimate for wages and salaries fell 3.3%.

Main features

June key figures

 Mar Qtr 20 to Jun Qtr 20Jun Qtr 19 to Jun Qtr 20
%%
Sales of goods and services (Chain volume measures)  
 Manufacturing  
  Trendnana
  Seasonally Adjusted-8.6-5.5
 Wholesale trade  
  Trendnana
  Seasonally Adjusted-6.7-5.3
Inventories (Chain volume measures)  
 Trendnana
 Seasonally Adjusted-3.0-4.7
Company gross operating profits  
 Trendnana
 Seasonally Adjusted15.011.3
Wages and salaries  
 Seasonally Adjusted-3.3-1.1

na not available, trend estimates have been suspended due to the impacts of COVID-19
 

Inventories (volume terms), seasonally adjusted estimates

Inventories (volume terms), seasonally adjusted estimates

Bar chart with 13 bars.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying %. Data ranges from -3 to 1.2.
End of interactive chart.

Trend estimates have been suspended

Company gross operating profits, seasonally adjusted estimates

Company gross operating profits, seasonally adjusted estimates

Bar chart with 13 bars.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying %. Data ranges from -3.8 to 15.
End of interactive chart.

Trend estimates have been suspended

June key points

Chain volume estimates

  • The seasonally adjusted estimate for inventories fell 3.0% in the June quarter 2020.
  • The seasonally adjusted estimate for Manufacturing sales of goods and services fell 8.6% this quarter.
  • The seasonally adjusted estimate for Wholesale trade sales of goods and services fell 6.7%.
     

Current prices estimates

  • The seasonally adjusted estimate for company gross operating profits rose 15.0% in the June quarter 2020 and has been impacted by Government subsidies (further information below).
  • The seasonally adjusted estimate for wages and salaries fell 3.3%.
     

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 June quarter 2020 is -$1,546m, which is $2,083m lower than the March quarter 2020 IVA of $537m.

    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.

    Impact of government subsidies on CGOP

    Estimates of Company Gross Operating Profits for the June quarter 2020 are impacted by the receipt of government subsidies. These subsidies are included as income in the compilation of CGOP but are not separately published in this release. Additional information on subsidy income received by industry will be published in the Australian National Accounts on Wednesday 2 September 2020.

    Suspension of trend series

    The trend series attempts to measure underlying behaviour in business activity. In the short term, this measurement will be significantly affected by changes to regular patterns in spending that will occur during this time, as certain businesses are restricted from trading for example. If the trend estimates in this publication were to be calculated without fully accounting for this irregular event, they would likely provide a misleading view of underlying business activity.

    It may be some time before the underlying trend in business activity can be accurately estimated. The Business Indicators trend series have therefore been suspended and will be reinstated when more certainty emerges in the underlying trend in business activity.

    Update to seasonal adjustment methods

    Business Indicators Australia uses the concurrent seasonal adjustment method, meaning that seasonal factors are re-estimated each time a new data point becomes available. If not appropriately accounted for, unusual real-world events such as COVID-19 can distort estimates calculated using this method.

    From March quarter 2020 for selected series, seasonal factors have been calculated using data up to and including December quarter 2019, then projected from March quarter 2020 onwards. This approach, known as the forward factor method, ensures that the seasonal factors are not distorted for industries affected by COVID-19 impacts. Switching to the forward factor method may result in revisions in seasonal data for future quarters when the concurrent seasonal adjustment method is reinstated.

    Inquiries

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    Analysis by industry

    ​​​​​​​Featured series

    The following graphs and commentary refer to seasonally adjusted estimates for sales of goods and services and inventories in volume terms, and wages and salaries and company gross operating profits in current price terms. Trend estimates have been suspended from June quarter 2019 onwards for all series due to the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19).

    Data downloads

    Table 1. Inventories, chain volume measures

    Table 2. Inventories, chain volume measures, percentage change from previous quarter

    Table 3. Inventories, current prices

    Table 4. Income from sales of goods and services, chain volume measures

    Table 5. Income from sales of goods and services, chain volume measures, percentage change from previous quarter

    Table 6. Income from sales of goods and services, current prices

    Previous catalogue number

    This release previously used catalogue number 5676.0.