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DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

			Sep Qtr 07 to Dec Qtr 07	Dec Qtr 06 to Dec Qtr 07
			%	%
Sales of goods & services (Chain vol. meas.)
	Manufacturing
		Trend	0.7	(a)na
		Seasonally Adjusted	1.9	2.8
	Wholesale trade
		Trend	0.3	1.5
		Seasonally Adjusted	1.2	2.2
Inventories (Chain vol. meas.)
	Trend		0.8	3.6
	Seasonally Adjusted		0.7	4.0
Company gross operating profits
	Trend		1.2	(a)na
	Seasonally Adjusted		3.9	11.7
Wages and salaries
	Seasonally Adjusted		0.9	9.1
na not available
(a) See paragraph 23 of the Technical Notes for more information

Inventories (volume terms), Trend estimates - Quarterly change

Company gross operating profits (current prices), Trend estimates - Quarterly change

DECEMBER KEY POINTS


CHAIN VOLUME ESTIMATES

• The trend estimate for inventories increased 0.8% in the December quarter 2007. The seasonally adjusted estimate increased 0.7% this quarter.
• The trend estimate for Manufacturing sales of goods and services increased 0.7% this quarter. The seasonally adjusted estimate increased by 1.9%.
• The trend estimate for Wholesale trade's sales of goods and services increased 0.3% this quarter. The seasonally adjusted estimate increased 1.2%, the second consecutive quarter of growth.

• The trend estimate for company gross operating profits increased 1.2% in the December quarter 2007. The seasonally adjusted estimate increased 3.9%, following a 1.4% fall in the previous quarter.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for wages and salaries increased by 0.9% this quarter, following a 1.6% rise in the previous quarter.

REVISIONS IN THIS ISSUE

There have been revisions to the Manufacturing Industry in this publication extending back to March quarter 2005. As a result, the following series have been revised: Sales of Goods and Services, Inventories, Company Gross Operating Profits and the related profits measures. These revisions have raised the level estimates for these series but have not significantly altered the movements.

COMPARISON BETWEEN COMPANY GROSS OPERATING PROFITS AND GROSS OPERATING SURPLUS

Price changes have had an impact on the value of inventories held by Australian businesses this quarter. An inventories valuation adjustment (IVA) is applied in the calculation of the gross operating surplus of private non-financial corporations (GOS) estimate in the Australian National Accounts. As prices for inventories have risen in the December quarter, growth in GOS will be lower after the application of the IVA. The IVA for the December quarter is $964m which is $746m higher than the September quarter IVA of $218m. No adjustment is made to the company gross operating profits (CGOP) estimate in this publication and, as a result, users should exercise caution when comparing the two series. It should be noted that there are other differences between the two series. In particular, changes are made to GOS when annual benchmarks are applied and slightly different seasonal factors apply to the two series. Given this, while CGOP movements are an appropriate indicator for GOS, it is not the case that the two series will have equivalent seasonally adjusted movements from quarter to quarter.

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Didier Rivet on Sydney (02) 9268 4241.