- 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.
Additional trend series are now available for selected industry divisions. 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
September 2023
Released
9/11/2023
Key statistics
In seasonally adjusted terms, the September 2023 monthly business turnover indicator showed:
- Rises in 10 of the 13 published industries
- The largest rise was in Information media and telecommunications (3.2%)
- The largest fall was in Manufacturing (-1.3%)
- 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 September 2023 (represented by colour) and the selected industries' estimated share of total turnover for the 2022-23 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 2022-23 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.
Information media and telecommunications is dark blue, showing a positive movement in business turnover. Manufacturing 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 September 2023, 10 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:
- Information media and telecommunications (3.2%)
- Mining (2.8%)
- Construction (2.6%)
The three industries that showed falls in September 2023 were:
- Manufacturing (-1.3%)
- Professional, scientific and technical services (-0.9%)
- Arts and recreation services (-0.3%)
Year-on-year, 10 of 13 industry divisions recorded rises in business turnover in September 2023, compared with September 2022. The largest rises were recorded in:
- Construction (21.1%)
- Other services (13.0%)
- Administrative and support services (8.5%)
The three industry divisions recording falls in business turnover in September 2023, compared with September 2022 were:
- Mining (-15.4%)
- Electricity, gas, water and waste services (-4.7%)
- Transport, postal and warehousing (-4.6%)
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 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 are now available in this publication.
| Division | Adjustment method | Trend reinstatement |
|---|---|---|
| Mining | Concurrent | Full trend series reinstated this month |
| Manufacturing | Concurrent | Full trend series reinstated this month |
| 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 partially reinstated this month. Data suppressed from Mar-20 to Mar-22 |
| Transport, postal and warehousing | Concurrent | Trend series partially reinstated this month. Data 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 partially reinstated this month. Data suppressed from Mar-20 to Mar-22 |
| Other services | Concurrent | Full trend series reinstated this month |
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.