Monthly Household Spending Indicator

This is not the latest release View the latest release

Experimental indicator of household spending using bank transactions data

Reference period
February 2022
Released
19/04/2022

Key statistics

  • Household spending increased 7.7% through the year, current price, calendar adjusted.
  • Through the year, household spending increased the most for clothing and footwear (+20.2%), recreation and culture (+17.8%) and hotels, cafes and restaurants (+15.6%).
  • Victoria (+13.9%) and Western Australia (+12.1%) were the states with highest increase in household spending through the year.

Index reference period January 2019 = 100.0

Indicator estimates are produced in current price original and current price calendar adjusted terms. Calendar adjusted estimates account for trading day impacts and length of month. As the indicator time series lengthens, seasonally adjusted estimates will become available. Until such time, it is advised to focus on the through the year movements. Through the year movements measure change in the current month compared to the same month in the previous year. 

Through the year spending

Through the year household spending increased in seven spending categories. The largest increases were in:

  • clothing and footwear (+20.2%)
  • recreation and culture (+17.8%)
  • hotels, cafes and restaurants (+15.6%).

The only categories to show decreases in household spending through the year were:

  • alcoholic beverages and tobacco (-10.3%)
  • miscellaneous goods and services (-0.8%).

State and territory spending

Household spending increased through the year for all states and territories. The strongest increases were in:

  • Victoria (+13.9%)
  • Western Australia (+12.1%).

In Victoria, the strongest household spending categories through the year were:

  • hotels, cafes and restaurants (+35.7%)
  • clothing and footwear (+35.0%)
  • transport (+30.3%).

In Western Australia, the strongest household spending categories through the year were:

  • transport (+25.3%)
  • hotels, cafes and restaurants (+22.6%)
  • recreation and culture (+22.0%).
State household spending through the year by category, current price, calendar adjusted (%)
 NSWVic.QldSAWATas.NTACT
Food6.95.511.18.79.65.13.63.9
Alcoholic beverages and tobacco-13-8.1-7.9-11.9-12.9-12.1-6.9-1
Clothing and footwear19.3359.412.815.714.814.9-17.6
Furnishings and household equipment-2.917.2-1.9171716.4-9.415.3
Health-2.25.63.4-3.910.5-4.510.24.9
Transport5.530.38.210.125.317.724.214.9
Recreation and culture14.824.11418.32221.1-15.59.2
Hotels, cafes and restaurants7.635.74.9722.616.18.112.8
Miscellaneous goods and services-4.63.1-11.52.35.2-4.6-1.6
Total3.313.956.312.18.10.65.6

Data downloads

Monthly Household Spending Indicator Data Cubes

Includes index numbers, monthly percentage changes and through the year percentage changes. 

Data files

Revisions

Updates to source data and additional processing have resulted in some revisions to the outputs. 

The new experimental monthly household spending indicator uses new and innovative methodologies to produce indicators of household spending based on bank transactions data.

The ABS is continuing to assess and refine the monthly household spending indicator methodologies and welcomes comments on the usefulness of these estimates. The ABS is also able to provide technical advice on using the monthly household spending indicator estimates, and its coherence with other ABS estimates such as Monthly Retail Trade and the National Accounts.

If you would like to provide feedback or request technical advice, please email national.accounts@abs.gov.au.

Acknowledgement

The ABS would like to acknowledge the ongoing support of the participating banks that have enabled the ABS to produce these statistics.

Back to top of the page