Monthly Household Spending Indicator

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Experimental indicator of household spending using bank transactions data

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Reference period
August 2022
Released
11/10/2022
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Key statistics

  • Household spending increased 29.0% through the year, current price, calendar adjusted.
  • Through the year, household spending increased for both services (+45.3%) and goods (+15.3%).
  • Through the year, both discretionary (+29.8%) and non-discretionary (+28.4%) spending increased.

Index reference period January 2019 = 100.0

Indicator estimates are produced in current price original and current price calendar adjusted terms. Calendar adjusted estimates account for trading day impacts and length of month. As the indicator time series lengthens, seasonally adjusted estimates will become available. Until such time, it is advised to focus on the through the year movements. Through the year movements measure change in the current month compared to the same month in the previous year. 

Significant events such as COVID-19 can lead to very strong through the year rises. Care should be given when comparing periods with these events. 

Through the year spending

Through the year household spending increased in all nine spending categories. The largest increases were in:

  • clothing and footwear (+75.8%)
  • hotels, cafes and restaurants (+64.8%)
  • transport (+57.8%).

Goods and services spending

Through the year, household spending on:

  • services rose 45.3%, driven by increased spending on transport, recreational, and catering services. 
  • goods rose 15.3%, driven by rises in clothing and footwear. 

Discretionary and non-discretionary spending

Through the year: 

  • discretionary household spending rose 29.8%, driven by spending in recreation and culture, and clothing and footwear. 
  • non-discretionary household spending rose 28.4%, driven by spending on transport and catering services. 

State and territory spending

Household spending increased through the year for all states and territories. The strongest increases were in:

  • the Australian Capital Territory (+46.7%)
  • New South Wales (+42.3%)
  • Victoria (+33.5%).

In the Australian Capital Territory, the strongest household spending categories through the year were:

  • hotels, cafes and restaurants (+105.4%)
  • clothing and footwear (+98.6%)
  • transport (+85.0%).

In New South Wales, the strongest household spending categories through the year were:

  • clothing and footwear (+125.6%)
  • hotels, cafes and restaurants (+101.6%)
  • transport (+94.5%). 

In Victoria, the strongest household spending categories through the year were:

  • clothing and footwear (+106.8%)
  • hotels, cafes and restaurants (+84.7%)
  • transport (+67.2%). 

 

State household spending through the year by category, current price, calendar adjusted (%)
 NSWVic.QldSAWATas.NTACT
Food-1.0-3.87.912.910.17.93.43.5
Alcoholic beverages and tobacco-2.7-2.03.08.83.14.10.35.7
Clothing and footwear125.6106.842.318.925.25.722.798.6
Furnishings and household equipment30.320.7-0.13.3-3.9-11.83.747.3
Health32.620.614.57.811.85.812.141.2
Transport94.567.237.719.527.936.834.585.0
Recreation and culture61.455.929.116.016.220.86.965.2
Hotels, cafes and restaurants101.684.755.633.212.440.18.1105.4
Miscellaneous goods and services24.725.917.25.59.715.58.029.0
Total42.333.522.014.213.315.410.146.7
State household spending through the year by goods/services, current price, calendar adjusted (%)
 NSWVic.QldSAWATas.NTACT
Goods20.018.311.99.28.83.16.927.5
Services70.753.233.319.517.928.412.466.7
State household discretionary/non-discretionary spending, through the year, current price, calendar adjusted (%)
 NSWVic.QldSAWATas.NTACT
Discretionary42.840.920.511.410.210.87.448.8
Non Discretionary41.927.223.316.915.919.912.944.9

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Monthly Household Spending Indicator Data Cubes

Includes index numbers, monthly percentage changes and through the year percentage changes. 

Data files

Revisions and future development

Household spending quarterly benchmarks have been updated with latest Household Final Consumption Expenditure (HFCE) from Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product. This has resulted in revisions to the outputs of the Monthly Household Spending Indicator. The largest revisions occur to April 2022, May 2022 and June 2022 months, in line with the first inclusion of HFCE benchmarks for the June 2022 quarter.  For more information on benchmarking please refer to 'Estimation' in the 'Transformation of the data' section in the Monthly Household Spending Indicator Methodology. 

Updates to source data and additional processing have resulted in some revisions to the outputs. 

The new experimental monthly household spending indicator uses new and innovative methodologies to produce indicators of household spending based on bank transactions data.

The ABS is continuing to assess and refine the monthly household spending indicator methodologies and welcomes comments on the usefulness of these estimates. 

The ABS is able to provide technical advice on using the monthly household spending indicator estimates, and its coherence with other ABS estimates such as Monthly Retail Trade and the National Accounts.

The ABS welcomes comments on the usefulness of these estimates. If you would like to provide feedback or request technical advice, please email national.accounts@abs.gov.au.

Acknowledgement

The ABS would like to acknowledge the ongoing support of the participating banks that have enabled the ABS to produce these statistics.

Methodology

Monthly Household Spending Indicator methodology, August 2022

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