- 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.
An Extraordinary Annual Seasonal Review (EASR) of the Monthly Business Turnover Indicator series was completed prior to the release of August data. See the Data Notes section for more information.
Monthly Business Turnover Indicator
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Experimental indicator of business turnover derived from monthly Business Activity Statements
Reference period
August 2023
Released
11/10/2023
Key statistics
In seasonally adjusted terms, the August 2023 monthly business turnover indicator showed:
- Rises in 8 of the 13 published industries
- The largest rise was in Manufacturing (6.4%)
- The largest fall was in Other services (-2.6%)
- Year-on-year, rises were seen in 10 of 13 published industries
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 August 2023 (represented by colour) and the selected industries' estimated share of total turnover for the 2021-22 financial year (represented by circle size).
Image
Description
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.
Manufacturing is dark blue, showing a positive movement in business turnover. Other services 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 August 2023, 8 of the 13 industry divisions included in the indicator showed rises in monthly turnover in seasonally adjusted terms. The largest rises in monthly turnover were seen in:
- Manufacturing (6.4%)
- Arts and recreation (6.0%)
- Retail trade (3.6%)
Five industries showed falls in August 2023, the largest falls in monthly turnover were seen in:
- Other services (-2.6%)
- Information media and telecommunications (-1.6%)
- Administrative and support services (-1.5%)
Year-on-year, 10 of 13 industry divisions recorded rises in business turnover in August 2023, compared with August 2022. The largest rises were recorded in:
- Construction (19.2%)
- Other services (9.2%)
- Professional, scientific and technical services (7.7%)
The three industry divisions recording falls in business turnover in August 2023, compared with August 2022 were:
- Electricity, gas, water and waste services (-22.3%)
- Mining (-16.5%)
- Transport, postal and warehousing (-5.8%)
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
Table 01: Business turnover indicator, Mining - Monthly percentage change and index
Table 02: Business turnover indicator, Manufacturing - Monthly percentage change and index
Table 03: Business turnover indicator, Electricity, gas, water and waste services - Monthly percentage change and index
Table 04: Business turnover indicator, Construction - Monthly percentage change and index
Table 05: Business turnover indicator, Wholesale trade - Monthly percentage change and index
Table 06: Business turnover indicator, Retail trade - Monthly percentage change and index
Table 07: Business turnover indicator, Accommodation and food services - Monthly percentage change and index
Table 08: Business turnover indicator, Transport, postal and warehousing - Monthly percentage change and index
Table 09: Business turnover indicator, Information media and telecommunications - Monthly percentage change and index
Table 10: Business turnover indicator, Professional, scientific and technical services - Monthly percentage change and index
Table 11: Business turnover indicator, Administrative support services - Monthly percentage change and index
Table 12: Business turnover indicator, Arts and recreation services - Monthly percentage change and index
Table 13: Business turnover indicator, Other services - Monthly percentage change and index
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
Data notes
Review of seasonal adjustment
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. Given the ongoing disruption during the COVID-19 period and continuing use of forward factors, extraordinary annual reviews of seasonally adjusted series are progressively being undertaken across the ABS statistics programs.
The extraordinary annual review process assesses each series individually to determine how observations should be treated and determine 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.
Further information can be found in the Methods Changes During COVID-19 Period article.
The outcome of the 2023 review for the Monthly Business Turnover Indicator is that five ANZSIC divisions have changed to the concurrent seasonal adjustment method, as COVID-19 is no longer having significant and prolonged impacts on these series:
Divisions that have changed from the forward factors method to concurrent adjustment in this publication:
- Manufacturing
- Accommodation and food services
- Transport, postal and warehousing
- Arts and recreation services
- Other services
Divisions that were already on concurrent seasonal adjustment:
- Mining
- Construction
- Wholesale trade
- Retail trade
- Information media and telecommunications
- Professional, scientific and technical services
- Administrative and support services
This leaves Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services as the only ANZSIC division on the forward factors method.
Review of trend suspension
In early 2020 the ABS suspended trend series, in addition to adopting forward factors to produce seasonally adjusted series. The trend estimate indicates the medium to long direction of a time series. To estimate the trend, the effect of significant events like disruptions associated with COVID-19 are assigned to either the trend or irregular components of a time series. The rationale for suspending trend series was that it was unknown whether the impacts from COVID-19 would be short or medium to long-term, and therefore there was high probability of needing to significantly revise initial assessments of the impacts of COVID-19 on the trend.
For the ANZSIC divisions where trend is to be reinstated (see table below), the trend series will be available in the September 2023 release, to be published on 09/11/2023.
| Division | Adjustment method | Trend reinstatement |
|---|---|---|
| Mining | Concurrent | Full trend series will be reinstated |
| Manufacturing | Concurrent | Full trend series will be reinstated |
| Electricity, gas, water and waste services | Forward factors | No |
| Construction | Concurrent | Reinstated in 2022 |
| Wholesale trade | Concurrent | Reinstated in 2022 |
| Retail trade | Concurrent | Partial reinstatement in 2022 - suppressed from Mar-20 to Feb-22 |
| Accommodation and food services | Concurrent | Trend series will be partially reinstated. Data will be suppressed from Mar-20 to Mar-22 |
| Transport, postal and warehousing | Concurrent | Trend series will be partially reinstated. Data will be suppressed from Mar-20 to Feb-22 |
| Information media and telecommunications | Concurrent | Reinstated in 2022 |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | Concurrent | Reinstated in 2022 |
| Administrative and support services | Concurrent | Reinstated in 2022 |
| Arts and recreation services | Concurrent | Trend series will be partially reinstated. Data will be suppressed from Mar-20 to Mar-22 |
| Other services | Concurrent | Full trend series will be reinstated |
For the majority of these divisions, the impacts of COVID-19 on the business turnover series have not caused multiple abrupt changes in the series level in short succession, and so it is appropriate to describe a trend level through the past three years. As a result, the trend will be published over the previous three years for these series, with the exceptions outlined in the table above.