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Current Issues
Economic Indicators on the Internet
E-Brief: Online Only issued September 2001; updated 18
September 2008
Guy Woods, Senior
Researcher
Statistics and Mapping Section
Economic statistics regularly dominate the daily news reports.
These statistics provide information about economic and financial
trends. They can influence investment decisions, the exchange rate,
interest rates and public policy. The information they provide is
considered vital to the sound management of the economy. This
e-brief will provide a guide to some of the major economic
indicators, who produces them and where they can be found.
The Australian Bureau of
Statistics (ABS) is the main source of economic statistics in
Australia. It publishes data on a regular basis about prices,
wages, economic growth, trade, labour market and investment. Its
web site provides access to its publications and data, free of
charge, on the day of publication. The
Key National Indicators page provides a one page
summary of the latest data.
All ABS economic indicators are released at 11.30 a.m Australian
Eastern Standard Time. The information on the
Key National Indicators page is updated shortly
afterwards. Information about expected release dates for the
current and following six months can be found at the
Release Advice page.
The
Reserve Bank of Australia
provides a range of statistics including exchange
rates, official
interest rates and other financial statistics. Other useful
statistics at
this site include the Bank’s historical time series of
economic data, going back to 1949, and the monthly
Reserve Bank Bulletin.
Apart from the ABS and RBA there are many institutions in the
public and private sector that provide statistical research into
the state of the economy. Links to some of these leading indicators
are listed in the following sections.
Labour market
The Department of Employment, Education and Workplace Relations
(DEEWR) provides a number of statistical publications about the
labour market.
The Labour Market Analysis section in the Department publishes
labour market projections in its
Leading Indicator of Employment. The section also provides
data on
Small Area and
Regional Labour Markets.
The DEEWR's
Vacancy Report is a monthly report that provides
information on vacancy rates in general and the skilled vacancy
rate.
The Workplace Relations Division of the DEEWR publishes a
quarterly guide to
Trends in Federal Enterprise Bargaining.
The executive recruitment firm Hudson publishes a monthly
report, The
Hudson Report, which tracks employers recruitment
intentions.
Executive salary surveys are conducted by the Australian Institute of
Management and
Mercer. The amount of free information from these surveys is
limited. The sites mostly provide information about the
products.
The ANZ Bank publishes a monthly indicator on the state of the
job market with its monthly
ANZ Job Advertisement Series.
Business confidence and outlook
Business confidence is a useful indicator of expected economic
trends in the short to medium term. There are several surveys that
attempt to ascertain the state of this important economic
indicator.
The Sensis Business
Index tracks sentiment in the small to medium business
sector. It also has a report that tracks e-Business trends
in this sector.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) publishes
a number of quarterly surveys. These include the National Survey of
Business Expectations, the Survey of Industrial
Trends, the Survey of Investor
Confidence and the Small Business
Survey. Between them these provide insights into
the expectations of general business, small business, manufacturers
and investors.
The business software services company, MYOB, produces a regular
survey of
small business operators. This survey provides information on
small business confidence and issues relevant to the sector.
The ANZ Bank produces a quarterly
Economic Outlook and other reports analysing trends at the
state and industry level.
The National Australia Bank (NAB) also publishes a monthly and
quarterly survey that presents data on
business confidence and outlook.
Westpac and the Melbourne
Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (W & MI)
publish important surveys of Consumer Sentiment and Economic
Activity.
A monthly experimental gauge of inflation based on the ABS's
Consumer Price Index methodology is produced by TD
Securities and the Melbourne Institute.
Industry performance
The Australian Industry Group (AIG) produces two monthly
industry based surveys.
There is the
Performance of Manufacturing Index which provides an overview
of how well manufacturing industries have performed. The
services sector is covered by the
Performance of Services Index.
Housing
The Real Estate Institute produces a number of statistical
publications on the major markets around Australia. Its
Market
Facts and Home Loan
Affordability reports provide information about trends
in the housing market. Senators and Members can find all
these data at the Parliamentary Library's intranet under the
heading
Housing data.
International outlook
The Economist provides a weekly
round-up of international economic indicators and
forecasts.
Monthly Statistical Bulletin
Many of the statistics covered by this guide are published in a
compendium of key indicators published by the Statistics and
Mapping Section of the Parliamentary Library. This Monthly
statistical bulletin comes out at the beginning of each
month. The bulletin is available as a printed publication
(available in a pdf or html format) and in an electronic version
(Monthly
statistical bulletin E-Data) which is continuously updated. The
electronic version is only available to Senators and Members.
The following table provides further information about the
timing and content of the indicators mentioned (as well as others
that are not available on the Internet). Hard copies of all these
publications may also be found in the Parliamentary Library.
|
Title |
Publisher |
Freq
|
Contents |
Month/quarter of
Issue |
Timetable |
| Australian National
Accounts (Cat No. 5206.0) |
ABS. |
Q
|
Detailed breakdown of
national accounts including Gross Domestic Product (GDP) |
Mar, Jun, Sept, Dec |
Last Wednesday of the
second month following the reference period or first Wednesday of
the third month |
| Balance of Payments and
International Investment Position (Cat No. 5302.0) |
ABS. |
Q
|
Current Account, Capital
Account, foreign investment and foreign debt |
Mar, Jun, Sept, Dec |
42 working days after the
end of reference period |
| International Trade in
Goods and Services (Cat No. 5368.0) |
ABS. |
M
|
Monthly balance of trade
figures |
Every month |
21 working days after the
end of reference period |
| International Merchandise
Trade (Cat No. 5422.0) |
ABS. |
Q
|
Detailed trade figures by
commodity and country |
Mar, Jun, Sept, Dec |
35 working days after the
end of reference period |
| Housing Finance for Owner
Occupation (Cat No. 5609.0) |
ABS. |
M
|
Figures by type of
borrower, dwelling, lending institution and State |
Every month |
27 to 28 working days
after end of reference period. Not on same day as other
indicators. |
| Private New Capital
Expenditure and Expected Expenditure (Cat No. 5625.0) |
ABS. |
Q
|
Expenditure on buildings,
construction, plant and equipment by industry |
Mar, Jun, Sept, Dec |
Last week of the second
month after end of reference period |
| Labour Force, Australia,
Preliminary (Cat No. 6202.0) |
ABS. |
M
|
Labour force status of
persons 15 and over |
Every month |
Generally second Thursday
of the month |
| Average Weekly Earnings,
Australia (Cat No. 6301.0) |
ABS. |
Q
|
Average weekly ordinary
time earning and average weekly total earnings |
Feb, Mar, Aug, Nov |
13 weeks after the end of
reference period |
| Consumer Price Index (Cat
No. 6401.0) |
ABS. |
Q |
Movement in the retail
price of goods and services for capital cities |
Mar, Jun, Sept, Dec |
Wednesday of the
4th week after end of reference period |
| Retail Trade (Cat No.
8501.0) |
ABS. |
M |
Retail turnover by
industry sector and State |
Every month |
22 working days after the
reference period except for June, Sept, Dec and Mar, which are
after 30 days |
| Building Approvals (Cat
No. 8731.0) |
ABS. |
M |
Approvals by number and
value for residential and commercial. |
Every month |
22 working days after end
of the reference period |
| Sales of New Motor
Vehicles (electronic publication only) (Cat No. 9314.0) |
ABS. |
M |
Sales of new motor
vehicles by State and class of vehicle |
Every month |
In the third week of the
month after end of reference period |
| Market Facts |
REIA* |
M |
Monthly review of major
real estate property markets in Australia |
Every month |
Second half of the
month |
| Home Loan
Affordability |
REI & AMP |
Q |
Index of home loan
affordability by State and Territory |
Mar, Jun, Sept, Dec |
End of second week
following the reference period |
| National Survey of
Business Expectations |
ACCI |
Q |
Survey of business
expectations and impressions of business and economic
conditions |
Mar, Jun, Sept, Dec |
Second month of period
preceding reference period |
| Performance of Manufacturing
Index |
AIG |
M |
Survey of manufacturing industries
performance |
Every month |
First business day of month following
reference period |
| Performance of Services Index |
AIG |
M |
Survey of service industries
performance |
Every Month |
Third business day of the month
following the reference period |
| Survey of Industrial
Trends |
ACID &
Westpac |
Q |
Survey of manufacturers
business expectations |
Mar, Jun, Sept, Dec |
End of first month of
quarter |
| Small Business Index |
Sensis |
Q |
Survey of expectations and
impressions of business and economic conditions |
Feb, May, Aug, Nov |
Last Tuesday in the first
month of reference period |
| Quarterly Business
Survey |
NAB |
Q |
Survey of expectations and
impressions of business and economic conditions |
Mar, Jun, Sept, Dec |
Five to ten days after the
end of the reference period |
| ANZ Employment
Advertisement Series |
ANZ |
M |
Survey of job
advertisements in major newspapers |
Every month |
First Monday of the month
except 1st or 2nd of month. Always in the
week before ABS labour force data |
| Hudson Report |
Hudson |
Q |
Survey of business
executives and their employment intentions |
Feb, May, Aug, Nov |
End of middle month of the
quarter |
| Indexes of Economic
Activity |
W &
MI |
M |
Indexes which provide
information on present and future levels of economic activity and
inflation |
Every month |
Third Wednesday of
month |
| Survey of Consumer
Sentiment |
W &
MI |
M |
Survey of how consumers
view their economic prospects and buying intentions |
Every month |
Second Wednesday of
month |
* Real Estate Institute of Australia
For copyright reasons some linked items are only
available to Members of Parliament.
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