Monthly Business Turnover Indicator

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Experimental indicator of business turnover derived from monthly Business Activity Statements

Reference period
December 2021
Released
10/02/2022

Key statistics

In seasonally adjusted terms, the monthly business turnover indicator showed:

  • Rises in 7 of the 13 published industries in December 2021
  • The largest increase was in Accommodation and food services (10.1%)
  • Falls ranged from -1.0% in Manufacturing to -5.2% in Other services 
  • Through the year the largest rises were recorded in Mining (25.3%) and Transport, postal and warehousing (24.5%)
  • This experimental indicator is derived from Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Business Activity Statements (BAS) turnover data from monthly BAS remitters. It includes 13 of the 19 industry divisions classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006.
  • Monthly BAS reporting covers businesses with GST annual turnover of $20 million or more and a proportion of smaller businesses that report monthly on a voluntary basis.
  • The estimated monthly changes in business turnover are aligned as closely as is feasible to the Australian System of National Accounts concept of market output. Users should exercise caution in comparing the indicator to other ABS economic outputs due to differences in concepts, scope, coverage, and methods. 
  • Estimates in this release are subject to revisions. 
  • Improvements to the imputation method have been implemented this month. For further information see Methodology.

Industry

Total turnover differs between industries. This should be considered when analysing month-to-month movements in the context of overall economic activity. The chart below shows the monthly movements in the turnover indicator for December 2021 (represented by colour) and the selected industries' estimated share of total turnover for the 2020-21 financial year (represented by circle size). 

Chart showing the monthly movements in the turnover indicator for November 2021 (represented by colour) and the selected industries' estimated share of total turnover for the 2020-21 financial year (represented by cirle size).
The chart has 13 circles, one for each industry division included in the Monthly Business Turnover Indicator. The size of each circle represents the share of total business turnover for the 2020-21 financial year for that industry. Circles are also given a colour shading to represent the monthly change in the Monthly Business Turnover Indicator for the current reference month. Industries with negative movements are coloured orange, those with little or no movement are grey, and positive movements are blue. The largest circles are for Wholesale trade, Retail trade, Manufacturing, Construction, and Mining. Accommodation and food services is coloured dark blue, indicating a strong positive movement. This is a comparatively small industry based on turnover share.

Business turnover differs from the National Accounts concept of output. For example, the value of goods sold by wholesalers and subsequently retailers are reflected in turnover for both industries while National Accounts output measures the margins gained by each industry.

Industry analysis and charts

Accommodation and food services recorded the largest rise in seasonally adjusted terms (10.1%), followed by Electricity, gas, water & waste services (6.8%). The increase in Accommodation and food services corresponds with continued easing of COVID-19 restrictions during the first half of December in New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory.

Other services (-5.2%) recorded the largest fall in December, followed by Retail trade (-3.5%) and Administrative and support services (-3.3%).

All thirteen industries included in the indicator recorded an increase through the year to December 2021.

Mining

Index base period: July 2019 = 100.0.

Manufacturing

Index base period: July 2019 = 100.0.

Electricity, gas, water and waste services

Index base period: July 2019 = 100.0.

Construction

Index base period: July 2019 = 100.0.

Wholesale trade

Index base period: July 2019 = 100.0.

Retail trade

Index base period: July 2019 = 100.0.

Accommodation and food services

Index base period: July 2019 = 100.0.

Transport, postal and warehousing

Index base period: July 2019 = 100.0.

Information media and telecommunications

Index base period: July 2019 = 100.0.

Professional, scientific and technical services

Index base period: July 2019 = 100.0.

Administrative and support services

Index base period: July 2019 = 100.0.

Arts and recreation services

Index base period: July 2019 = 100.0.

Other services

Index base period: July 2019 = 100.0.

Data downloads

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

Data Explorer datasets

Caution: Data in Data Explorer is currently released after the 11:30am release on the ABS website. Please check the reference period when using Data Explorer.

For more information about Data Explorer, see the Data Explorer user guide.

Business Turnover Indicator - Monthly percentage changes and indexes, January 2010 onwards

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