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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
October 2021
Released
10/12/2021

Key statistics

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

  • Rises in 9 of the 13 published industries in October 2021
  • The largest increase was in Accommodation and food services (13.8%)
  • Falls ranged from -1.9% in Mining to -4.7% in Other services
  • All industries rose through the year to October 2021, with Mining showing the largest annual rise (28.5%)
  • 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 scope, coverage, and methods. 
  • Estimates in this release are subject to revisions. 
  • For further information see Methodology.

Industry

Total turnover differs between industries and this should be considered when analysing month-to-month movements to contextualise insights on overall economic activity. The chart below shows the monthly movements in the turnover indicator for October 2021 (represented by colour) and the selected industries' estimated share of total turnover for the 2020-21 financial year (represented by circle size). 

Chart showing the monthly movements in the turnover indicator for August 2021 (represented by colour) and the selected industries' estimated share of total turnover for the 2020-21 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 2020-21 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 Wholesale trade, Retail trade, Manufacturing, Construction, and Mining. Of these five industries, Mining and Construction are slightly orange indicating a small negative movement. Manufacturing, Wholesale trade and Retail trade are all grey-blue indicating small positive monthly movements. Accommodation and food services is coloured dark blue, indicating a strong positive movement. This is a relatively small industry based on turnover share.

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

Accommodation and food services recorded the largest rise in seasonally adjusted terms (13.8%), followed by Arts and recreation services (4.8%). The increases corresponded with the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory during the month. 

Other services (-4.7%) recorded the largest fall in October 2021, followed by Construction (-2.7%) and Professional, scientific and technical services (-2.6%). 

All thirteen industries included in the indicator recorded an increase through the year to October 2021. Mining recorded the strongest annual growth despite falling for the month, reflecting recent falls in iron ore prices. 

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

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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