Australian National Accounts: Supply Use Tables

This publication contains the supply-use tables for 2021-22, 2020-21 and 2019-20. The data in this release is consistent with the 2022-23 release of the Australian System of National Accounts.

Supply-use tables are an integral and essential element of the ABS national accounts. They are the building blocks for the Australian System of National Accounts as they are used to balance GDP for all three approaches (production, expenditure and income) and provide the annual benchmarks (levels) from which the quarterly estimates are compiled. They provide detailed information about the supply and use of products in the Australian economy, and the structure of and interrelationships between Australian industries.

The supply-use time series from 1994-95 to 2021-22 are available through the Data Explorer website.

The supply-use tables show that in 2021-22 the Australian economy continued to recover from the effects of the COIVID-19 pandemic in current price terms. Strong growth in Output of 12.1% and Gross value added (GVA) of 11.7% was driven by the Mining, Agriculture, Manufacturing and Service industries (see Chart 1). Gross operating surplus and gross mixed income (GOSMI) growth of 9.9% outpaced Compensation of employees (COE) growth of 7.3%. COE grew consistently across all divisions while GOSMI was constrained in some industries by rising input costs, an increasing wage bill, and reduced COVID-19 government subsidies.  

Economic activity increased as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted and industries directly affected by lockdowns, such as Transport, Arts and recreation and Other services, saw large rises in Output and GVA. Demand for auxiliary services, such as Administration and support services, rose to support increased activity in other industries.

Prices rose across the economy which contributed to the increase in current price Output. High export commodity prices increased GVA for Agriculture and Mining and drove overall GDP growth. However, higher prices also constrained GVA and GOSMI by increasing Intermediate consumption (TIU) for industries with high input costs. Some industries, such as Transport and Manufacturing, were able to pass on increased costs to consumers, while others, such as Construction, absorbed the costs resulting in a GOSMI fall.

Market and Non-market services saw similar increases in GVA of 9.3% and 8.1% respectively. The strength in Market services was driven by Arts and recreation, and Administrative and support services. COE increased as the labour market tightened, however, GOSMI fell mainly due to reductions in COVID-19 subsidies and increasing TIU. Health and social services drove the increase in Non-market services as the federal government continued to fund the COVID-19 health response. Non-market industries saw increased COE and GOSMI across all divisions.

Mining Output increased by 33.5%, as strong commodity price increases in energy products and select base metals which only partly offset by a fall in the Iron ore price. The TIU increase of 19.8% was primarily driven by higher fuel, material, and services costs. Use of services, such as ‘Services to mining’, ‘Construction services, and ‘Other repair and maintenance’ increased due to wet weather disruptions which pushed up water management costs and damages, and a resumption of heavy maintenance and construction activities after COVID-19 lockdowns.

The strength in Coal mining increased the contribution of the sector to total Mining Output by 12.6 percentage points, from 13.3% to 25.9% in 2021-22. The increase was driven by Coal prices, with volumes of Coal production decreasing slightly. TIU rose at a much slower rate as volume production declined, however the increased prices for fuel and machinery and equipment, as well as continued demand for mining services, more than offset the weakness. Strong Output fed mainly into increased GOSMI, which grew 639.0% while COE remained relatively stable, increasing by 3.0%.    

The contribution of Iron ore mining to total Mining Output fell from 45.5% to 30.1% in 2021-22, driven by the fall in Iron ore prices. TIU increased by 21.3% due to the increased price of fixed production costs and major repair and maintenance activities. The resulting fall in GVA fed into reduced GOSMI, which fell 19.8%, while COE increased by 19.9% due to investment in new greenfield developments and mine expansion requiring more employees.

Construction Output increased by 12.3%, driven by all major sectors. There was strong demand for Residential building construction buoyed by the government HomeBuilder stimulus and alterations and additions as households spent more time at home.

Non-residential building construction Output grew by 14.5% as the industry saw increased commercial construction in the areas of warehousing, hotels, offices, and hospitals. However, TIU increased within the industry, impacted by increased material costs, delays to construction projects, COVID compliance measures, and subcontracting, which led to a fall in GVA.  

Growth in Heavy and civil engineering construction Output of 13.2% was driven largely by road and bridge construction, however, significant increases were seen across other major sectors including rail, renewable energy, and mining.

TIU outpaced Output for Construction, growing at 15.1%. The increase was driven by high input costs for building materials such as timber, steel, and concrete as well as high fuel and energy prices. A skilled labour shortage led to higher wages being paid to attract and retain staff, which increased COE by 10.2%, and an increase in subcontractor expenses. Fixed price contracts meant that these increased costs could not usually be passed on to customers and were therefore often absorbed by construction businesses. These issues coincided with increased insolvencies in 2021-22 (ASIC).

These factors, combined with the significant decrease in COVID-19 subsidies available to businesses put pressure on GOSMI, which fell 7.1%.

Output of Transport, postal and warehousing experienced high growth of 16.4%, driven by post COVID-19 recovery in Air and space transport and high demand for Transport support, warehousing and storage services. TIU grew 20.9% and outpaced Output growth, primarily due to high fuel prices. Even with high TIU growth, GVA remained strong across the division. COE increased 6.2% and GOSMI increased 6.6%.       

Air and space transport Output increased 76.1% as the airlines experienced high demand for both passenger and freight services. Passenger numbers rebounded strongly as domestic travel restrictions were relaxed and international travel resumed. TIU growth was softer than Output, growing at 56.0%. Passenger loads per flight increased compared to the previous year, with airlines making better use of fixed costs, which offset some of the fuel price increase. The resulting increase in GVA led to a recovery of GOSMI, which returned to small positive ($439m) after a negative result (-$1.1b) in 2020-21. The soft result for GOSMI was affected by the reduction of COVID-19 subsidies to the industry and a strong increase in COE of 19.0%.

Transport support, warehousing and storage services experienced growth in Output of 18.9%. This was attributable to the strength across the rest of the Transport industry, which resulted in increased demand for support services. Increases in Agricultural inventories was a leading driver in demand for warehousing and storage services.

Rental, hiring and real estate services performed strongly in 2021-22 as Output increased 11.0%. Both Rental and hiring services and Other property operators and real estate services contributed to the growth. TIU increased alongside Output, growing by 11.6%, driven by the increased activity in the industry.

Rental and hiring services experienced significant Output growth of 12.8% primarily from heavy machinery and scaffolding rental and hiring as engineering, infrastructure, and mining projects expanded. Passenger car rental also rebounded strongly following the easing of travel restrictions. The strong growth in COE of 8.3% was driven by increased employment in the sector, while GOSMI remained subdued at 0.8%.

The increase in Output of 10.6% for Other property operators and real estate services was a result of the large increase in dwelling prices, which translated into higher commissions. This trend was reflected in the large increase in stamp duty collected. Non-residential property operators experienced growth as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on commercial properties eased, with strength driven by demand for warehouse space.

Inventories increased by $12.9b in 2021-22. The build-up of inventories was seen across the economy, with larger contributions from Iron ore, Medicinal and pharmaceutical products, Machinery and equipment, Cereal grains, and Other basic materials. Many businesses increased their stock levels due to mid-cycle export disruptions, the rebuilding of stock levels following supply-chain disruptions in 2019-20 and 2020-21, and to meet forecasts of increased demand.

Inventories of agricultural products were driven by the bumper grain harvest, which were mainly held by wholesalers, and low slaughter rates contributing to the rebuilding of the national beef cattle herd.

The build-up of the Iron ore inventories was due to reduced export volumes combined with record imports. Imports during the June quarter were very strong, and the lag between the importation in June and the use in the next financial year, further contributed to the buildup of inventories.

Medicinal and pharmaceutical products inventories increased due to COVID-19 related medical inventory stockpiling, which included the increased availability of Rapid Antigen Tests, PCR testing equipment, vaccines, and antivirals.

Machinery and equipment inventories were driven by strong imports, restocking following COVID-19 induced drawdowns, and a shift to higher inventory levels to combat perceived supply chain uncertainty.

This release of the Supply-Use tables contains the 2021-22 reference year and revised data for the 2020-21 and 2019-20 reference years.

Statistical revisions are carried out regularly in the Australian National Accounts, to reflect the most current information and estimation methods. For the December, March and June quarter National Accounts releases, the ABS limit revisions to the most recent quarters only. Annually, the ABS will apply revisions to a longer time series of selected estimates, which is referred to as a “historical revision".  These revisions are first seen in the Annual National Accounts, and then in the September quarter release.  

Historical revisions are important for several reasons including improved data quality, to update classifications and to improve international comparability.
Historical revisions in the National Accounts have traditionally been undertaken on an ad-hoc basis. This involved holding back individual historical revisions until a time where many changes were put through in bulk. From 2021, the ABS adopted a policy of implementing targeted annual historical revisions. This is to ensure that the National Accounts use the most up to date data available which best captures changes in a dynamic economy and is more responsive to user needs. The ABS will advise users on planned historical revisions in advance of publication.

The Annual National Accounts Supply-Use introduce revisions for the three open years as part of the standard benchmarking process. As such, the impact of the historical revisions can be difficult to isolate for the ‘open’ three years. 

The 2023 round of revisions incorporates four major historical revision improvements, as well as a suite of minor corrections that had minimal impact on key National Accounts aggregates.

Incorporating Census data into Rent estimates

The ABS has aligned the value of household final consumption expenditure (HFCE) on Rent with estimates from the 2021 Census for the period 2016-17 to 2020-21 (inclusive). The rent series in the National Accounts is updated every five years when the latest Census data is available. In the intervening years, rent estimates are produced using indicators based on information of the number of dwellings in Australia from the Building Activity Survey (BACS) and information on rental price growth in capital cities from the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Victorian Capital Assets Charge (CAC) reclassification

The ABS has reclassified payments and receipts related to the Victorian Capital Asset Charge (CAC) across impacted sectors. The CAC was previously classified as Sales of goods and services revenue received by the General Government (GG) sector and has now been reclassified to Other taxes on production. These changes bring the National Accounts in alignment with Government Finance Statistics as detailed in the April 2023 Government Finance Statistics 2021-22 annual publication.

Improvements to Finance industry estimates

The ABS has improved the treatment of personal and loan dwelling balances, offset accounts, “buy now, pay later” services and the International Investment Financial Intermediation Services Indirect Measured (FISIM) model in the Finance industry estimates, in addition to updated source data. 

Reclassification of several software businesses

An individual business entity is assigned to an industry based on its predominant activity according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC). The ABS routinely reviews the ANZSIC classification of business entities to ensure they are classified to the correct industry for statistical purposes. A targeted review of businesses in the software design and software publishing industries has resulted in a shift of economic activity between industry estimates in the National Accounts, particularly from ANZSIC 7000 Computer system design and related services (in Division M Professional, scientific and technical services) to ANZSIC 5420 Software publishing (in Division J Information media and telecommunications). 

The suite of 2023 historical revisions appear in the following economic releases:

Australian System of National Accounts, 2022-23 - 27 October 2023
Australian National Accounts: State Accounts - 21 November 2023
Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product, September quarter 2023 - 6 December 2023
Estimates of Industry Level KLEMS Multifactor Productivity, 2021-22 financial year– 15 November 2023
Estimates of Industry Multifactor Productivity, 2022-23 financial year – 13 December 2023
Updates to the HFCE rent series in the National Accounts will flow through to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Selected Living Cost Indexes (SLCIs) via the annual re-weighting process. The new weights will be implemented in the monthly CPI indicator in January 2024 and will apply from the March quarter 2024 for the quarterly CPI and SLCIs.

For further information on the supply-use tables, 2021-22, please see the Methodology page.

For information on industry and product concordances, please see the Methodology page.

Help for: Data Explorer Datasets
Australian National Accounts: Supply Table 1994-95 to 2021-22
Australian National Accounts: Use Table 1994-95 to 2021-22
Australian National Accounts: Primary Inputs Table 1994-95 to 2021-22

This release previously used catalogue number 5217.0