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Monthly Business Turnover Indicator

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Experimental indicator of business turnover derived from monthly Business Activity Statements

Reference period
April 2023
Released
9/06/2023

Key statistics

In seasonally adjusted terms, the April 2023 monthly business turnover indicator showed:

  • Falls in nine of the 13 published industries 
  • The largest fall was in Mining (-10.6%)
  • The largest rise was in Accommodation and Food Services (1.7%)
  • Through the year, rises were seen in 11 of 13 published industries
  • This experimental indicator is derived from Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Business Activity Statements (BAS) turnover data from monthly BAS remitters. It includes 13 of the 19 industry divisions classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006.
  • Monthly BAS reporting 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 estimated monthly changes in business turnover are aligned as closely as is feasible to the Australian System of National Accounts concept of market output. Users should exercise caution in comparing the indicator to other ABS economic outputs due to differences in concepts, scope, coverage, and methods.

Industry

Total turnover differs between industries. This should be considered when analysing month-to-month movements in the context of overall economic activity. The chart below shows the monthly movements in the turnover indicator for April 2023 (represented by colour) and the selected industries' estimated share of total turnover for the 2021-22 financial year (represented by circle size). 

Chart showing the monthly movements in the turnover indicator for April 2023 (represented by colour) and the selected industries' estimated share of total turnover for the 2021-22 financial year (represented by circle size).

The chart has 13 circles, one for each industry division included in the Monthly Business Turnover Indicator. The size of each circle represents the share of total business turnover for the 2021-22 financial year for that industry. Circles are also given a colour shading to represent the monthly change in the Monthly Business Turnover Indicator for the current reference month. Industries with negative movements are coloured orange, those with little or no movement are grey, and positive movements are blue.

The largest circles are for Manufacturing, Mining, Wholesale trade, and Retail trade.

Accommodation and food services is coloured grey, showing a positive movement in business turnover. Mining is coloured orange, showing a negative movement in business turnover.

Business turnover differs from the National Accounts concept of output. For example, the value of goods sold by wholesalers and subsequently retailers are reflected in turnover for both industries while National Accounts output measures the margins gained by each industry.

Industry analysis and charts

In April 2023, nine of the 13 industry divisions included in the indicator showed falls in monthly turnover in seasonally adjusted terms. The largest falls in monthly turnover were seen in:

  • Mining (-10.6%), led by coal and iron miners as commodity prices fell and exports were lower in April.
  • Electricity, gas, water and waste services (-9.4%), after rising 9.3% in March. This industry has been impacted in recent months by volatility in wholesale electricity and gas prices. 
  • Transport, postal and warehousing (-6.8%), with lower turnover seen across shipping and freight businesses, as well as airline operators.

Four industries showed rises in April 2023. The largest were seen in:

  • Accommodation and food services (1.7%)
  • Retail trade (1.3%)
  • Manufacturing (0.9%)

Year-on-year, 11 of 13 industry divisions recorded increases in business turnover in April 2023, compared with April 2022. The largest rises were recorded in:

  • Construction (18.1%)
  • Other services (13.6%)

The two industries that recorded year-on-year falls in business turnover in April 2023, compared with April 2022 were:

  • Mining (-5.2%)
  • Information media and telecommunications (-0.1%)

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

Professional, scientific and technical services

Administrative and support services

Arts and recreation services

Other services

Trend Graphs for Selected Industries

Trend Graphs for Selected Industries

Data downloads

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

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.

For more information about Data Explorer, see the Data Explorer user guide.

Business Turnover Indicator - Monthly percentage changes and indexes, January 2010 onwards

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