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Business Indicators, Australia

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

Reference period
September 2021
Released
29/11/2021

Key statistics

Current price estimates for the September quarter 2021:

  • Company gross operating profits rose 4.0% seasonally adjusted 
  • Wages and salaries fell 0.8% seasonally adjusted 

Chain volume estimates for the September quarter 2021:

  • Inventories fell 1.9% seasonally adjusted
 Jun Qtr 21 to Sep Qtr 21Sep Qtr 20 to Sep Qtr 21
%%
Sales of goods and services (Chain volume measures)  
 Manufacturing  
  Trend

na

na

  Seasonally Adjusted

-0.8

2.8

 Wholesale trade  
  Trend

na

na

  Seasonally Adjusted

-5.9

2.1

Inventories (Chain volume measures)  
 Trend

na

na

 Seasonally Adjusted

-1.9

0.7

Company gross operating profits  
 Trend

na

na

 Seasonally Adjusted

4.0

5.4

Wages and salaries  
 Seasonally Adjusted

-0.8

4.7

*na - not available. Trend estimates have been suspended due to the impacts of COVID-19

 

Inventories

Trend estimates have been suspended

 

Company gross operating profits

Trend estimates have been suspended

Notes on release

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 September quarter 2021 is $4,687m which is $508m lower than the June quarter 2021 IVA of $5,195m.

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

For the September quarter 2021 Business Indicators release, estimates of Company Gross Operating Profits have once again included the receipt of COVID-19 related government subsidies as income in the compilation of CGOP, as previously seen from the June quarter 2020 onwards. These government subsidies include stimulus packages provided by both state and federal levels of government.

Re-referencing of chain volume estimates

Each September quarter the reference and base year for chain volume estimates for the Business Indicators Survey are updated. A new base, 2019-20, 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 2019-20. 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.

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.

Differences between Business Indicators and Monthly Business Turnover Indicator

The ABS released the Monthly Business Turnover Indicator, August 2021 on Friday 15 October 2021, the first in a series of new monthly economic indicators which covers similar industries released in Business Indicators, Australia.

This experimental indicator is derived from Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Business Activity Statements (BAS) turnover data from monthly BAS remitters and differs from Business Indicators, Australia in terms of scope and coverage. Monthly BAS reporting for the Monthly Business Turnover Indicator covers businesses with GST annual turnover of $20 million or more and a proportion of smaller businesses that report monthly on a voluntary basis. The estimates of Sales and Service Income in Business Indicators, Australia are compiled from the Quarterly Business Indicators Survey (QBIS) which is based on a random sample of approximately 16,000 businesses.

For further information see Table 2: Summary of differences between Monthly Business Turnover Indicator and QBIS Sales Monthly Business Turnover Indicator, Methodology

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).

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

Data downloads

Please note, we will be progressively transitioning to releasing Excel files in .XLSX format from 3 December 2021.

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

Table 7. Income from sales of goods and services by state, current prices

Table 8. Income from sales of goods and services by state, current prices, percentage change from previous quarter

Table 9. Company profits before income tax, current prices

Table 10. Company profits before income tax, current prices, percentage change from previous quarter

Table 11. Company gross operating profits, current prices

Table 12. Company gross operating profits, current prices, percentage change from previous quarter

Table 13. Unincorporated gross operating profits, current prices

Table 14. Unincorporated gross operating profits, current prices, percentage change from previous quarter

Table 15. Business gross operating profits, current prices

Table 16. Business gross operating profits, current prices, percentage change from previous quarter

Table 17. Wages and salaries, current prices

Table 18. Wages and salaries, current prices, percentage change from the previous quarter

Table 19. Wages and salaries by state, current prices

Table 20. Wages and salaries by state, current prices, percentage change from previous quarter

Table 21. Sales/wages and salaries ratio, current prices, original

Table 22. Business gross operating profits/sales ratio, current prices, original

Table 23. Inventories/sales ratio, current prices, original

Table 24. Manufacturing subdivision, income from sales of goods and services, chain volume measures

Table 25. Manufacturing subdivision, income from sales of goods and services, current prices

Table 26. Manufacturing subdivision, inventories, chain volume measures

Table 27. Manufacturing subdivision, inventories, current prices

Table 28. Manufacturing subdivision, company profits before income tax, current prices, original

Table 29. Manufacturing subdivision, company gross operating profits, current prices, original

All time series spreadsheets

Data Explorer datasets

Caution: Data in Data Explorer is currently released after the 11:30am release on the ABS website. Please check the reference period when using Data Explorer.

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

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 5676.0.

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