On 16 December 2009, the ABS released quarterly national accounts estimates based on new international standards, the System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA08) and Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, sixth edition (BPM6), and the new industry classification: Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification, 2006 (ANZSIC06) and the new Standard Economic Sector Classification of Australia, 2008 (SESCA08).
The release included the first release of national accounts estimates for the September quarter 2009 and revised historical series back to 1959.
Errors have subsequently been identified in some of the series released. The errors limit the usefulness of some of the series, particularly for modelling and forecasting purposes. Specifically:
- The quarterly estimates of the value added of agriculture contained an error which resulted in the published seasonally adjusted series containing significant residual seasonality. This impacted on the Farm and Non-farm GDP historical time series. The series has been recalculated with the correct seasonal adjustment.
- An error was identified in the estimation of components of household final consumption expenditure (HFCE). The errors were corrected. This impacted on state estimates of HFCE and had some impact on current price HFCE at the national level.
Neither correction had an impact on the September quarter 2009 headline measure, the growth in the seasonally adjusted chain volume measure of GDP.