5206.0 - Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product, Mar 2007  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 06/06/2007   
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MARCH KEY FIGURES

% change Dec qtr 06
to Mar qtr 07
% change Mar qtr 06
to Mar qtr 07

GDP (Chain volume measure)
Trend
1.1
3.5
Seasonally adjusted
1.6
3.8
Final consumption expenditure (Chain volume measure)
Trend
1.0
3.8
Seasonally adjusted
1.3
4.0
Gross fixed capital formation (Chain volume measure)
Trend
1.6
5.1
Seasonally adjusted
2.0
5.8
GDP chain price index
Original
1.0
4.3
Terms of trade
Seasonally adjusted
1.4
7.5
Real net national disposable income
Trend
1.3
4.3
Seasonally adjusted
2.0
4.6

GDP growth rates, Volume measures, quarterly change
Graph: GDP growth rates, Volume measures, quarterly change

Contributions to GDP growth, Expenditure: Seasonally adjusted
Graph: Contributions to GDP growth, Expenditure: Seasonally adjusted



MARCH KEY POINTS


KEY AGGREGATES

  • In trend terms, GDP increased by 1.1% in the quarter and Non-farm GDP rose by 1.4%. GDP per hour worked in the market sector grew by 0.7% and the Household saving ratio was -0.5%.
  • In seasonally adjusted terms, GDP increased by 1.6%, the highest growth since December quarter 2003. Non-farm GDP increased by 1.7%. The terms of trade increased by 1.4% resulting in a 1.9% increase in Real gross domestic income.


EXPENDITURE ON GDP
  • In seasonally adjusted terms, the main contributors to the increase in expenditure on GDP were Private business investment (1.2 percentage points), which is affected by the privatisation of Telstra (see note on page 2), and Household final consumption expenditure (0.9 percentage points). The largest negative contribution came from Imports of goods and services (-0.5 percentage points).


INDUSTRY GROSS VALUE ADDED
  • In seasonally adjusted terms, Construction and Finance and insurance (0.2 percentage points) were the largest contributors to GDP growth with a number of other industries contributing 0.1 percentage points. Manufacturing and Electricity, gas and water supply both detracted 0.1 percentage points from GDP growth.


NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER) Release Date
June 2007 4 September 2007



FEATURE ARTICLES AND RECENT RELEASES

A description of recent releases related to the National Accounts program is presented in 'Recent releases'.



REVISIONS IN THIS ISSUE

Revisions have been made to a number of aggregates. The net effect of these revisions has been to increase growth in the seasonally adjusted volume measure of GDP in December quarter 2006 by 0.1 percentage points. The revisions reflect normal quarterly revisions due to incorporation of more up-to-date source data.



CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

Telstra Corporation was effectively privatised on 20 November 2006. For the purposes of ABS statistics this change from public to private sector is effective from March quarter 2007. The classification of Telstra has changed from public sector non-financial corporation to private sector non-financial corporation for the March quarter 2007.


To assist users of these statistics the seasonally adjusted movements for March quarter 2007 if Telstra Corporation had also been included in the private sector for December quarter 2006 would have been as follows:

  • Gross fixed capital formation - private business investment +4.8%
  • Gross fixed capital formation - public -7.5%
  • Gross operating surplus - private +5.2%
  • Gross operating surplus - public +1.7%

There is a trend break in the March quarter 2007 in a number of series related to the privatisation of Telstra. As a result no trend estimates are published for these series.


Series covering both the private and public sectors, such as GDP, are not affected by the privatisation of Telstra.


For more information please see Information Paper: Treatment of Telstra in ABS statistics (cat. no. 8102.0) released 26 February 2007.


From March quarter 2007 the three components of expenditure on intangible fixed assets have been suppressed from relevant tables due to confidentiality.



CHANGES NEXT ISSUE

A new reference year for volume measures is typically updated annually in the June quarter issue. From 2007 onwards the reference year will be updated in the September quarter issue each year. In the September quarter 2007 issue, the new reference year will be 2005-06 for volume estimates. This will have two effects, first, a new base year, 2005-06, will be introduced which results in revisions to growth rates in subsequent periods. Second, the volume estimates will be re-referenced to 2005-06 thus preserving additivity in the quarters after the reference year. Re-referencing affects the levels of, but not the movements in, volume estimates.



INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Terry Rawnsley on Canberra (02) 6252 6711, email national.accounts@abs.gov.au