Monthly Household Spending Indicator

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Experimental indicator of household spending using bank transactions data

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Reference period
March 2024
Released
3/05/2024
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Key statistics

  • Household spending increased 2.1% through the year on a current price, calendar adjusted basis.
  • Through the year, household spending increased for both goods (+2.5%) and services (+1.8%).
  • Through the year, household spending increased for non-discretionary (+4.0%) and decreased for discretionary (-0.1%).

Future improvements to the Monthly Household Spending Indicator

A media statement on Thursday 23 November 2023 announced that the ABS would be enhancing the Monthly Household Spending Indicator in 2024, and ceasing the Retail Trade publication after the June 2025 reference period. For more information, please see Future development below or visit the Future cessation of the Retail Business Survey and Retail Trade Publication webpage.

Suspension of Alcoholic beverages and tobacco series

In this release, data for the Alcoholic beverages and tobacco category has not been published for the last three months. This category is subject to significant revisions after the spending indicator is benchmarked to Household Final Consumption Expenditure (HFCE).

The ABS is continuing to assess and refine the methodologies for the Alcoholic beverages and tobacco series in both the HFCE and monthly spending indicator series. The data will be available in the Monthly Household Spending Indicator later in 2024 as part of the future improvements (see above).

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 for four spending categories. The largest increases were in:

  • food (+6.9%)
  • transport (+6.5%)
  • recreation and culture (+5.6%).

Spending in March was influenced by the earlier timing of Easter . While the Easter period predominantly fell in March in 2024, it entirely occurred in April in 2023. The calendar adjusted estimates in this indicator do not account for moving holidays, such as Easter. Moving holidays are accounted for in seasonally adjusted estimates in other ABS publications. 

Goods and services spending

Index reference period January 2019 = 100.0

Through the year, household spending on:

  • goods rose 2.5%, driven by increased spending on food and on goods for recreation and culture.
  • services rose 1.8%, driven by increased spending on transport services.

Discretionary and non-discretionary spending

Index reference period January 2019 = 100.0

Through the year: 

  • non-discretionary spending rose 4.0%, driven by increased spending on transport services and food.
  • discretionary spending fell 0.1%.

State and territory spending

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

  • South Australia (+5.7%)
  • Western Australia (+4.4%)
  • Australian Capital Territory (+4.1%).

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

  • transport (+16.4%)
  • recreation and culture (+10.8%)
  • food (+7.1%).

In Western Australia, the strongest household spending categories through the year were:

  • recreation and culture (+9.3%)
  • food (+8.8%)
  • transport (+8.5%).

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

  • recreation and culture (+8.8%)
  • food (+8.4%)
  • clothing and footwear (+6.5%).
State household spending through the year by category, current price, calendar adjusted (%)
 NSWVic.QldSAWATas.NTACT
Food6.36.47.17.18.86.110.58.4
Clothing and footwear0.2-3.94.41.1-2.12.00.06.5
Furnishings and household equipment0.2-1.7-2.72.23.19.6-2.30.0
Health-5.0-3.70.55.10.2-3.7-9.60.0
Transport4.57.84.216.48.56.7-3.04.7
Recreation and culture1.74.88.610.89.36.712.48.8
Hotels, cafes and restaurants1.35.26.41.23.90.0-0.83.7
Miscellaneous goods and services-4.0-7.1-6.00.9-0.6-8.3-7.40.7
Total0.51.72.95.74.41.40.34.1
State household spending through the year by goods/services, current price, calendar adjusted (%)
 NSWVic.QldSAWATas.NTACT
Goods2.21.03.52.84.83.27.25.6
Services-0.92.42.48.34.1-0.1-3.93.3
State household discretionary/non-discretionary spending, through the year, current price, calendar adjusted (%)
 NSWVic.QldSAWATas.NTACT
Discretionary-1.8-1.21.23.52.1-0.6-1.04.4
Non Discretionary2.44.24.37.66.13.11.14.1

Data downloads

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Monthly Household Spending Indicator Data Cubes

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

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.

Monthly Household Spending Indicator - Monthly percentage changes and indexes, January 2019 onward

Future development

Improvements to the Monthly Household Spending Indicator (MHSI) will mean the ABS can stop the Retail Trade publication after the June 2025 reference period, which will give users a more comprehensive view of household consumption and remove the need for businesses to respond to the Retail Business Survey.

The ABS has been working with key data users to understand how the MHSI can be further enhanced to meet their needs. Feedback from users has identified the following enhancements.

  • Moving to a ‘household consumption’ concept bringing MHSI closer to its predominant use
  • Seasonally adjusted estimates
  • Current price estimates
  • Quarterly chain volume measures

Once in place, these enhancements will ensure the ABS is on track to provide high quality, timely estimates of household spending across a variety of consumption categories. The enhancements are planned for delivery in 2024. Prior to Retail Trade ceasing, the ABS will continue to work with partners and stakeholders to improve the MHSI and provide users with suitable timely data to support their needs.

More Information about this transition can be found on the Future cessation of the Retail Business Survey and Retail Trade Publication webpage or through contacting us at household.spending@abs.gov.au.

Revisions

Updates to source data have resulted in revisions to the outputs this month.

Acknowledgement

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

Methodology

Scope

  • Payment for goods and services by Australian households.
  • Captures the point of payment for a good or service, regardless of ownership change, service delivery, or consumption.

Geography

Data is available for:

  • Australia Total
  • States and territories.

Source

Aggregated, de-identified banks transactions data provided to the ABS from participating banks. Source data includes debit and credit card transactions, but excludes other payment types such as cash and direct transfers.

Collection method

Participating banks send transactions data soon after the end of each calendar month. 

Concepts, sources and methods

Household spending is categorised according to COICOP Divisions. Outputs are produced for total household spending and nine categories. Data is benchmarked to quarterly household final consumption expenditure (HFCE) to adjust for undercoverage.

History of changes

Not applicable for this release.

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