Business Indicators, Australia

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Quarterly estimates of private sector sales, wages, profits and inventories

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Reference period
March 2023
Released
5/06/2023
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Key statistics

Seasonally adjusted, current price estimates for:

  • Company gross operating profits rose 0.5% 
  • Wages and salaries rose 1.8% 

Seasonally adjusted, chain volume estimate for:

  • Inventories rose 1.2% 
Key data items
 Dec Qtr 22 to Mar Qtr 23 (%)Mar Qtr 22 to Mar Qtr 23 (%)
Sales of goods and services (Chain volume measures)
 Manufacturing  
  Trendnana
  Seasonally Adjusted3.61.9
 Wholesale trade  
  Trendnana
  Seasonally Adjusted2.30.7
Inventories (Chain volume measures)  
 Trendnana
 Seasonally Adjusted1.24.1
Company gross operating profits  
 Trendnana
 Seasonally Adjusted0.57.1
Wages and salaries  
 Seasonally Adjusted1.811.4
  1. na - not available. Trend estimates have been suspended due to the impacts of COVID-19.

 

Inventories

  1. Trend estimates have been suspended

 

Company gross operating profits

  1. Trend estimates have been suspended

Notes on release

Extraordinary Annual Seasonal Review (EASR)

In early 2020 the ABS advised that the method used to produce seasonally adjusted estimates would be changed from the ‘concurrent adjustment’ method to the ‘forward factors’ method for series with significant and prolonged impacts from COVID-19. As the disruption from the COVID-19 period has settled, ABS statistical programs have been evaluating the suitability of the continued use of forward factors by conducting extraordinary annual reviews of seasonally adjusted series.

The EASR process assesses each series individually to determine how observations from 2020 through to the end of 2022 should be treated and the most appropriate approach (concurrent adjustment or forward factors) for estimating seasonal adjustment factors in the immediate future. Revisions arising from the annual review are relatively minor for most series, but series which have used forward factors are likely to have larger revisions because the seasonal factor estimates are annually updated to incorporate information from the previous year's observations.

An EASR process was conducted in March quarter 2023. The outcome of the latest review for Business Indicators, Australia was for concurrent seasonal adjustment to be reinstated for series where COVID-19 is no longer having significant and prolonged impacts on the series. While most series have returned to concurrent adjustment, series remaining on forward factors have had new static forward factors calculated for the next 12 months, with these factors applied from March 2023.

Further information can be found here: Methods changes during the COVID-19 period

Suspension of trend series

In the March quarter 2020, trend estimates were suspended due to the impacts of Coronavirus (COVID-19). The trend series attempts to measure underlying behaviour in business activity. In the short term, this measurement has been significantly affected by changes to regular patterns in business activity due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, the publication of trend estimates for this period may provide a misleading view of underlying business activity. 

The reintroduction of concurrent adjustment for most seasonally adjusted series following the Extraordinary Annual Seasonal Review (EASR) this quarter indicates greater certainty in the underlying business activity of the series. The ABS will continue to review the trend series with a view to reinstating trend data in the near future. 

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 March quarter 2023 is $1,433m which is $1,094m lower than the December quarter 2022 IVA of $2,527m.

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.

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. 

Total all industries

Mining

Manufacturing

Electricity, gas, water and waste services

Construction

Wholesale trade

Retail trade

Accommodation and food services

Transport, postal and warehousing

Information media and telecommunications

Financial and insurance services

Rental, hiring and real estate services

Professional, scientific and technical services

Administrative and support services

Education and training

Health care and social assistance

Arts and recreation services

Other services

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Data Explorer datasets

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Business Indicators  - Quarterly estimates of private sector sales, wages, profits and inventories

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 5676.0.

Methodology

Business Indicators, Australia methodology, March 2023