8501.0 - Retail Trade, Australia, Mar 2008  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 02/05/2008   
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MARCH KEY FIGURES

Mar 08
Feb 08 to Mar 08
$m
% change

Turnover at current prices
Trend estimates
20 172.2
0.2
Seasonally adjusted estimates
20 177.1
0.5


Mar Qtr 08
Dec Qtr 07 to Mar Qtr 08
$m
% change

Turnover, in volume terms
Trend estimates
57 680.5
0.9
Seasonally adjusted estimates
57 392.3
-0.1


Monthly turnover, Trend estimates - % change
Graph: Monthly turnover, Trend estimate, Percentage change

Quarterly turnover, in volume terms - Trend estimates
Graph: Quarterly turnover, in volume terms—Trend estimates




MARCH KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES
  • The trend estimate of turnover for the Australian Retail and Hospitality/Services series increased by 0.2% in March 2008. This follows an increase of 0.2% in February 2008 and a revised increase of 0.2% in January 2008.
  • In March 2008, industries that had an increase in the trend estimate were Food retailing (+0.3%), Department stores (+0.2%), Recreational good retailing (+1.1%) and Other retailing (+0.6%). Household good retailing (-0.2%) and Hospitality and services (-0.3%) had a decline in the trend estimate.


SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES
  • The seasonally adjusted estimate of turnover for the Australian Retail and Hospitality/Services series increased by 0.5% in March 2008. This follows a decrease of 0.1% in February 2008 and a revised no change in January 2008.
  • All industries, except Food retailing and Household good retailing (both +1.7%), had a decrease in the seasonally adjusted estimate in March 2008.


ORIGINAL ESTIMATES
  • In original terms, Australian turnover increased by 6.1% in March 2008 compared with February 2008. Chains and other large retailers (which are completely enumerated) increased by 8.9%, while the estimate for 'smaller' retailers (the sampled units) increased by 2.4%.
  • Australian turnover increased by 3.0% in March 2008 compared with March 2007. Chains and other large retailers increased by 6.3%, while 'smaller' retailers decreased by 1.4%.


VOLUME MEASURES
  • The trend volume measure of turnover increased by 0.9% in the March quarter 2008. This follows a 1.0% increase in the December quarter 2007. In seasonally adjusted terms, the volume measure decreased by 0.1% in the March quarter 2008.


NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE Release Date
April 2008 2 June 2008
May 2008 2 July 2008
June 2008 31 July 2008
July 2008 2 September 2008
August 2008 30 September 2008
September 2008 3 November 2008



CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

Quarterly Chain Volume data are shown in Tables 14 and 15 of this issue.


SAMPLING ERRORS

Standard errors for the Australian estimates (original data) for March 2008 contained in this publication are:

Data Series
Estimate
Standard error

Level of retail turnover ($m)
19 465.4
152.6
Change from preceding month ($m)
1 119.5
67.2
% change from preceding month (%)
6.1
0.4



For more information see the Explanatory Notes, paragraphs 32-36.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Graham Phillips on Canberra (02) 6252 5625.