Monthly Household Spending Indicator

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Experimental indicator of household spending using bank transactions data

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Reference period
September 2022
Released
8/11/2022
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Key statistics

  • Household spending increased 28.0% through the year on a current price, calendar adjusted basis.
  • Through the year, household spending increased for both services (+43.0%) and goods (+15.4%).
  • Through the year, both discretionary (+29.7%) and non-discretionary (+26.4%) 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. 

This release of the indicator includes new quarterly time series and information about updates next month. Please refer to the data downloads section for more information. 

Through the year spending

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

  • clothing and footwear (+73.1%)
  • hotels, cafes and restaurants (+60.6%)
  • transport (+53.0%).

Goods and services spending

Through the year, household spending on:

  • services rose 43.0%, driven by increased spending on transport, recreational, and catering services. 
  • goods rose 15.4%, driven by rises in clothing and footwear. 

Discretionary and non-discretionary spending

Through the year: 

  • discretionary household spending rose 29.7%, driven by spending in recreation and culture, and clothing and footwear. 
  • non-discretionary household spending rose 26.4%, driven by spending on transport 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 (+71.4%)
  • Victoria (+38.6%)
  • New South Wales (+37.7%).

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

  • hotels, cafes and restaurants (+174.2%)
  • clothing and footwear (+167.4%)
  • furnishings and household equipment (+140.2%).

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

  • clothing and footwear (+125.1%)
  • hotels, cafes and restaurants (+109.6%)
  • transport (+78.1%). 

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

  • clothing and footwear (+118.4%)
  • hotels, cafes and restaurants (+90.9%)
  • transport (+74.9%). 

 

State household spending through the year by category, current price, calendar adjusted (%)
 NSWVic.QldSAWATas.NTACT
Food-0.3-2.8912.610.89.39.33.6
Alcoholic beverages and tobacco-1.34.46.415.27.18.85.720.4
Clothing and footwear118.4125.128.516.8251.520.2167.4
Furnishings and household equipment17.930.7-3.76.4-2.1-16.73.9140.2
Health24.519.66.38.714.46.94.955.4
Transport74.978.124.421.829.737.729.1131.2
Recreation and culture53.147.72115.414.319.34.262.1
Hotels, cafes and restaurants90.9109.634.725.712.931.23.9174.2
Miscellaneous goods and services27.943.69.411.117.3420.779.1
Total37.738.615.215.21513.310.771.4
State household spending through the year by goods/services, current price, calendar adjusted (%)
 NSWVic.QldSAWATas.NTACT
Goods18.421.59.110.19.52.68.942.3
Services61.661.921.620.420.824.412104.8
State household discretionary/non-discretionary spending, through the year, current price, calendar adjusted (%)
 NSWVic.QldSAWATas.NTACT
Discretionary3947.314.413.7136.910.785.1
Non Discretionary36.230.71616.516.719.610.761.7

Data downloads

This release includes new quarterly calendar adjusted datacubes which are labelled from Table 10 to Table 18. Quarterly original datacubes have not been included due to the benchmarking process creating similar historical results. For more information on benchmarking please refer to 'Estimation' in the 'Transformation of the data' section in the Monthly Household Spending Indicator Methodology. 

In the next release, the datacubes will be transformed into the standard ABS format which will alter the structure of the datacubes. Each series will be given a unique identifier which can be found in the spreadsheet labelled "New datacubes concordance". 

If you had any questions regarding the new structure, please contact national.accounts@abs.gov.au.

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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

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, September 2022

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