Business Indicators, Australia

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Quarterly estimates of private sector sales, wages, profits and inventories

Reference period
March 2021
Released
1/06/2021

Key statistics

Current price estimates for the March quarter 2021:

  • Company gross operating profits fell 0.3% seasonally adjusted 
  • Wages and salaries rose 2.0% seasonally adjusted 

Chain volume estimates for the March quarter 2021:

  • Inventories rose 2.1% seasonally adjusted
 Dec Qtr 20 to Mar Qtr 21Mar Qtr 20 to Mar Qtr 21
%%
Sales of goods and services (Chain volume measures)  
 Manufacturing  
  Trend

na

na

  Seasonally Adjusted

1.7

-0.7

 Wholesale trade  
  Trend

na

na

  Seasonally Adjusted

3.4

5.5

Inventories (Chain volume measures)  
 Trend

na

na

 Seasonally Adjusted

2.1

-0.9

Company gross operating profits  
 Trend

na

na

 Seasonally Adjusted

-0.3

11.9

Wages and salaries  
 Seasonally Adjusted

2.0

2.7

*na - not available. Trend estimates have been suspended due to the impacts of COVID-19

 

Inventories

Trend estimates have been suspended

 

Company gross operating profits

Trend estimates have been suspended

 

March key points

Chain volume estimates

The seasonally adjusted estimate for:

  • Inventories rose 2.1% in the March quarter 2021.
  • Manufacturing sales of goods and services rose 1.7% this quarter.
  • Wholesale trade sales of goods and services rose 3.4%.

Current price estimates

The seasonally adjusted estimate for:

  • Company gross operating profits fell 0.3%.
  • Wages and salaries rose 2.0%.

Notes on release

Comparison between company gross operating profits and gross operating surplus

Valuation changes have had an impact on the value of inventories held by Australian businesses this quarter. An Inventories Valuation Adjustment (IVA) is applied in the calculation of the Gross Operating Surplus of private non-financial corporations (GOS) estimate in the Australian National Accounts. The IVA for the March quarter 2021 is $3,751m which is $2,391m higher than the December quarter 2020 IVA of $1,360m.

No adjustment is made to the Company Gross Operating Profits (CGOP) estimate in this publication and, as a result, users should exercise caution when comparing CGOP and GOS. It should be noted that there are other differences between the two series. In particular, changes are made to GOS when annual benchmarks are applied and slightly different seasonal factors apply to the two series. Given this, while CGOP movements are an appropriate indicator for GOS, the two series will not have equivalent seasonally adjusted movements from quarter to quarter.

Impact of government subsidies on CGOP

Estimates of Company Gross Operating Profits have included the receipt of COVID-19 related government subsidies as income in the compilation of CGOP from the June quarter 2020. For the March quarter 2021 release, there has been a reduction in these government subsidies compared to the previous three quarters as the government stimulus packages are gradually wound back. Updated information on subsidy income received by industry will be published in the March quarter 2021 release of the Australian National Accounts on Wednesday 2 June 2021.

Suspension of trend series

The trend series attempts to measure underlying behaviour in business activity. In the short term, this measurement will be significantly affected by changes to regular patterns in spending that will occur during this time, as certain businesses are restricted from trading for example. If the trend estimates in this publication were to be calculated without fully accounting for this irregular event, they would likely provide a misleading view of underlying business activity.

It may be some time before the underlying trend in business activity can be accurately estimated. The Business Indicators trend series have therefore been suspended and will be reinstated when more certainty emerges in the underlying trend in business activity.

Extraordinary Annual Seasonal Review (EASR)

The Extraordinary Annual Seasonal Review undertaken this quarter has individually assessed each series to determine how each observation from the previous year should be treated for estimation of the seasonal factors used to seasonally adjust the current end of the series. This process has ensured disruption to series caused by COVID-19 does not unduly affect estimates of the seasonal factors.

For series which have used the forward factors method, revisions to the seasonally adjusted series are likely to be larger than the revisions historically observed each quarter when concurrent adjustment was used. Series which have used forward factors have used static seasonal factor estimates for the previous year, and the review has updated these seasonal factor estimates by incorporating relevant information from the previous year's observations. When concurrent adjustment is used, revisions to the seasonally adjusted estimates will typically be smaller because seasonal factor estimates are updated quarterly on the basis of the addition of just one extra data point.

A decision was made about the future use of forward factors/concurrent adjustment. In the case where the forward factors method will continue to be used, new forward factors have been calculated.

Analysis by industry

​​​​​​​Featured series

The following graphs and commentary refer to seasonally adjusted estimates for sales of goods and services and inventories in volume terms, and wages and salaries and company gross operating profits in current price terms. Trend estimates have been suspended from June quarter 2019 onwards for all series due to the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19).

Total all industries

Mining

Manufacturing

Electricity, gas, water and waste services

Construction

Wholesale trade

Retail trade

Accommodation and food services

Transport, postal and warehousing

Information media and telecommunications

Financial and insurance services

Rental, hiring and real estate services

Professional, scientific and technical services

Administrative and support services

Education and training

Health care and social assistance

Arts and recreation services

Other services

Data downloads

Table 1. Inventories, chain volume measures

Table 2. Inventories, chain volume measures, percentage change from previous quarter

Table 3. Inventories, current prices

Table 4. Income from sales of goods and services, chain volume measures

Table 5. Income from sales of goods and services, chain volume measures, percentage change from previous quarter

Table 6. Income from sales of goods and services, current prices

Table 7. Income from sales of goods and services by state, current prices

Table 8. Income from sales of goods and services by state, current prices, percentage change from previous quarter

Table 9. Company profits before income tax, current prices

Table 10. Company profits before income tax, current prices, percentage change from previous quarter

Table 11. Company gross operating profits, current prices

Table 12. Company gross operating profits, current prices, percentage change from previous quarter

Table 13. Unincorporated gross operating profits, current prices

Table 14. Unincorporated gross operating profits, current prices, percentage change from previous quarter

Table 15. Business gross operating profits, current prices

Table 16. Business gross operating profits, current prices, percentage change from previous quarter

Table 17. Wages and salaries, current prices

Table 18. Wages and salaries, current prices, percentage change from the previous quarter

Table 19. Wages and salaries by state, current prices

Table 20. Wages and salaries by state, current prices, percentage change from previous quarter

Table 21. Sales/wages and salaries ratio, current prices, original

Table 22. Business gross operating profits/sales ratio, current prices, original

Table 23. Inventories/sales ratio, current prices, original

Table 24. Manufacturing subdivision, income from sales of goods and services, chain volume measures

Table 25. Manufacturing subdivision, income from sales of goods and services, current prices

Table 26. Manufacturing subdivision, inventories, chain volume measures

Table 27. Manufacturing subdivision, inventories, current prices

Table 28. Manufacturing subdivision, company profits before income tax, current prices, original

Table 29. Manufacturing subdivision, company gross operating profits, current prices, original

All time series spreadsheets

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 5676.0.

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