Upcoming changes to household spending data

Improvements to the Monthly Household Spending Indicator (MHSI) have made it possible for the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to end the Retail Trade survey.

Retail Trade data will be released for the last time on 31 July 2025. We first shared details about this in a media statement on 23 November 2023.

Over the last two years, the ABS has been guided by feedback and discussion with key data users in making improvements to the MHSI.

The MHSI is compiled largely from aggregated, de-identified bank data and supermarket transaction (administrative) data, which means around 3,000 businesses can save time from no longer needing to respond to the Retail Trade survey each month.

Retail Trade has been a long-running early indicator of household consumption, but is no longer as useful. In 2022-23, Retail Trade data only covered about 33 per cent of household consumption – down from 56 per cent coverage in 1959-60 – as people and households changed the way they shopped and spent.

By comparison, the MHSI offers over 60 per cent coverage of household consumption, including spending on a wide range of services as well as goods.

For more information on how the MHSI is compiled and how it compares with other publications, you can read our detailed information paper here: Interpreting the Monthly Household Spending Indicator.

A video explaining the shift from Retail Trade to the MHSI is also available on YouTube.

For more information about the transition, see this article: Future cessation of the Retail Business Survey and Retail Trade Publication.

If you have any further questions, please email household.spending@abs.gov.au.

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