Glossary

average weekly earnings	Average gross (before tax) earnings of employees.
average weekly ordinary time earnings	Weekly earnings attributed to award, standard or agreed hours of work.
balance on current account	The difference between receipts and payments as the result of transactions in goods, services, income and current transfers between Australia and the rest of the world. A current account deficit means that total payments exceed total receipts, while a current account surplus means the reverse.
bankruptcies	Bankruptcies and Administration Orders under Parts IV and XI of the Bankruptcy Act.
business investment	Private gross fixed capital formation for machinery and equipment; non-dwelling construction; livestock; and intangible fixed assets.
cash market rate (interbank overnight)	Weighted average of the interest rates at which banks have borrowed and lent exchange settlement funds during the day.
consumer price index	A measure of change in the price of a basket of goods and services from a base period. Changes in the consumer price index are the most commonly used measure of inflation.
employed persons	Persons aged 15 and over who, during a period of one week, worked for one hour or more for pay or worked for one hour or more without pay in a family business or on a family farm.
general practice bulk billing rate	The percentage of general practitioner attendances (excluding practice nurse) that are bulk billed.
gross domestic product	The total market value of goods and services produced after deducting the cost of goods and services used up in the process of production but before deducting for depreciation.
gross domestic product—chain volume measures	Also known as real GDP, this is a measure used to indicate change in the actual quantity of goods and services produced. Economic growth is defined as a situation in which real GDP is rising.
gross foreign debt	All non-equity financial claims by non-residents on residents of Australia . The major component of gross foreign debt is the amount of borrowings from non-residents by residents of Australia .
household debt ratio	The amount of household debt at the end of a quarter expressed as a proportion of annual household gross disposable income. Household debt is the sum of housing and other personal debt, including securitised debt. Debt excludes debt owed by unincorporated enterprises.
household debt servicing ratio	Interest payments on housing and other personal debt expressed as a proportion of household gross disposable income.
household gross disposable income	The amount of income that households have available for spending after deducting any taxes paid, interest payments and transfers overseas.
household net disposable income	Household gross disposable income less depreciation of household capital assets.
household saving ratio	The ratio of household income saved to household net disposable income.
housing loan interest rate	The variable rate quoted by banks for loans to owner-occupiers.
implicit price deflator for non-farm gross domestic product	A measure of price change that is derived (hence the term implicit) by dividing gross non-farm product at current prices by gross non-farm product at chain volume measures.
labour force	The employed plus the unemployed.
labour force participation rate	The number of persons in the labour force expressed as a percentage of the civilian population aged 15 years and over.
labour productivity	Gross domestic product (chain volume measures) per hour worked in the market sector.
long-term unemployed	Persons unemployed for a period of 52 weeks or more.
male total average weekly earnings	Weekly ordinary time earnings plus weekly overtime earnings of all male employees. This measure of earnings is used in the process of benchmarking age pensions.
market sector	All industries excluding those (five) industries whose outputs are not marketed. These excluded industries are: property and business services; government administration and defence; education; health and community services; and personal and other services.
natural increase	Excess of live births over deaths.
net foreign debt	Gross foreign debt less non-equity assets such as foreign reserves held by the Reserve Bank of Australia and lending by residents of Australia to non-residents.
net overseas migration	Net permanent and long-term overseas migration plus an adjustment for the net effect of ‘category jumping’.
non-farm gross domestic product	Gross domestic product less that part which derives from agricultural production and services to agriculture.
overseas visitors	Visitors from overseas who intend to stay in Australia for less than 12 months.
private health insurance hospital coverage rate	The percentage of the total population that has private health insurance hospital coverage.
profits share	Gross operating surplus (the excess of gross output over costs incurred in producing that output) of all financial and non-financial corporate trading enterprises as a percentage of total factor income.
real average weekly earnings	Average weekly earnings adjusted for inflation as measured by the consumer price index.
seasonally adjusted estimates	Estimates in which the element of variability due to seasonal influences has been removed. Seasonal influences are those recur regularly each a year.
settlers	Travellers who hold migrant visas, New Zealand citizens who indicate an intention to settle and those who are otherwise eligible to settle.
terms of trade	The relationship between the prices of exports and the prices of imports. The usual method of calculating the terms of trade is to divide the implicit price deflator for exports by the implicit price deflator for imports.
total factor income	Gross domestic product at market prices less the difference between taxes and subsidies, or the sum of compensation of employees, gross operating surplus and gross mixed income.
trade weighted index	A measure of the value of the Australian dollar against a basket of the foreign currencies of Australia ’s major trading partners.
trimmed mean	Measures a weighted average of the middle 70 per cent of quarterly price changes in CPI classes reported by the ABS. In effect the 90 CPI classes which make up the CPI are ranked in terms of their quarterly percentage changes and the classes which account for the top and bottom 15 per cent of the distribution are excluded, or ‘trimmed’. This is one method of statistical manipulation of the consumer price survey results to exclude extreme price fluctuations from the CPI survey, in order to determine a trend rate of inflation.
turnover	Includes retail sales; wholesale sales; takings from repairs, meals and hiring of goods; commissions from agency activity; and net takings from gaming machines. From July 2000, turnover includes the Goods and Services Tax.
unemployed persons	Persons aged 15 and over who, during a period of one week, were not employed but had actively looked for work in the previous four weeks and were available to start work.
unemployment rate	The number of unemployed persons expressed as a percentage of the labour force.
wage price index	A measure of change in the price of labour (i.e. wages, salaries and overtime) unaffected by changes in the quality or quantity of work performed.
wages share	Compensation of employees (the total value of income from labour) as a percentage of total factor income.
weighted median	Measures the price change that is the median, or midpoint, price change of the distribution of price changes within the CPI survey. That is, all but the middle observation from the 90 classes within the CPI are excluded. This is one method of statistical manipulation of the consumer price survey results to exclude an array of volatile price fluctuations in order to determine a trend rate of inflation.
youth unemployment	Number of 15–19 year olds looking for full-time work.
youth unemployment rate	Number of 15–19 year olds looking for full-time work expressed as a percentage of the full-time labour force in the same age group.

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