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MAIN FEATURES EXPENDITURE CHAIN VOLUME MEASURES

			Trend				Seasonally adjusted
			% Change	% Change	% points contribution to		% Change	% Change	% points contribution to
			Dec 17 to	Mar 17 to	growth in GDP		Dec 17 to	Mar 17 to	growth in GDP
			Mar 18	Mar 18	Dec 17 to Mar 18		Mar 18	Mar 18	Dec 17 to Mar 18
Final consumption expenditure
	General government		1.2	4.5	0.2		1.6	5.1	0.3
	Households		0.6	2.9	0.4		0.3	2.9	0.2
Gross fixed capital formation
	Private
		Dwellings	-0.1	-2.6	-		0.9	-1.0	0.1
		Ownership transfer costs	-1.2	-2.7	-		1.3	-2.1	-
		Non-dwelling construction	-0.5	3.8	-		1.6	3.2	0.1
		Machinery and equipment	1.9	9.5	0.1		1.1	9.9	-
		Cultivated biological resources	-1.0	-2.3	-		-1.7	-3.5	-
		Intellectual property products	0.7	3.7	-		1.2	4.0	-
	Public		0.1	4.8	-		-2.0	1.1	-0.1
Changes in inventories			na	na	na		na	na	0.2
Gross national expenditure			0.8	3.3	0.8		0.8	3.1	0.8
Exports of goods and services			0.3	2.2	0.1		2.4	4.6	0.5
Imports of goods and services			1.3	6.1	-0.3		0.5	4.7	-0.1
Statistical discrepancy (E)			na	na	0.1		na	na	-0.1
Gross domestic product			0.7	2.8	0.7		1.0	3.1	1.0
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
na not available

• Household final consumption expenditure increased 0.3% in seasonally adjusted terms. This was driven by rises in non-discretionary components such as insurance and other financial services (0.7%), food (0.5%), and electricity, gas and other fuels (2.3%). There were falls in hotels, cafes and restaurants (-1.8%) and alcoholic beverages (-2.0%). Government final consumption expenditure increased 1.6% in seasonally adjusted terms. State and local government consumption rose 1.4%, while national government consumption increased by 1.7%.

• Gross fixed capital formation increased 0.5% in seasonally adjusted terms. Private investment increased 1.2%, driven by non-dwelling construction (1.6%). Dwellings (0.9%) and machinery and equipment (1.1%) supported the increase. Public investment decreased 2.0% during the quarter driven by state and local general government (-2.2%). Both the private and public sector were impacted by the transfer of an asset from the previous quarter. Total gross fixed capital formation contributed 0.1 percentage points to GDP growth during the quarter.

• Total inventories increased $1,222m in seasonally adjusted terms following an increase of $390m last quarter. The increase was driven by a build up in Wholesale Trade inventories, which exhibited its largest rise in over five years. Retail Trade and Mining fell this quarter, partially offsetting the rise in Wholesale Trade.

• Exports of goods and services rose 2.4% in seasonally adjusted terms. Seasonally adjusted exports of goods rose 2.9% with non-rural exports up 3.3%, partially offset by rural exports, which fell 4.8%. Exports of services rose 0.7%.
• Imports of goods and services rose 0.5% in seasonally adjusted terms. Seasonally adjusted imports of goods rose 1.3% driven by a rise in capital goods 4.3%. There was a decline in both consumption goods (-0.3%) and intermediate goods (-0.3%).